Location-Based Reporting and Mapping of Crimes Using Google Maps

—Surveys showed that the majority of crimes committed were unreported to the authorities. Given this fact, this paper presents the development of a crime incidents reporting system with the use of Google Maps at the same time exploiting the active participation of netizens. This will provide another venue for reporting crime incidents. The idea draws its motivation from the inconvenience of going to the police station, personal belief of the weak investigative capabilities of the authorities to resolve petty crimes and limited dissemination of crime information to the community from the authorities. The system used Google Maps to present crime information accessible through a browser. In this way, people may report crimes using a location pointed on the map before providing detailed information. It enables an automatic method for displaying information on the map because the respondents itself identify the location. In addition, the system supports the idea of a witness hence; a crime can also be confirmed by other members of the community. This facility uses the idea of "+1" or "like" method used by popular networking sites. The system is deployed for testing in the school but reporting can be done by the public. This scope allows the researcher to easily get the evaluation of the respondents. Currently, the system is deployed for testing and evaluation.