Overall crime in University City has dropped 30 percent this year, and two new software applications have been implemented to force it down even further.
Yesterday afternoon, the University City District unveiled the UCD Crime Analysis and Mapping System, a customized software application that allows crimes to be visually rendered on a map.
Although the Philadelphia Police Department has had a similar system for several years, this software is specifically tailored to the needs of University City.
"We had a particular challenge in tracking and analyzing crime data and trends for University City," said UCD Public Safety Director Gregory Montanaro, explaining how University City spans three police districts and subdivides a police sector.
UCD-CAMS, which has already been in use for about two months, allows crime data to be mapped, graphed and tabulated. It is based on geographic information system technology, which allow multiple layers, depicting such items as hospitals and university buildings, to be displayed on the maps.
Crime searches can be run on any number of parameters, including the type of crime and if it occurred within the boundaries of institutional boundaries, such as Penn. These results translate into various symbols on the map.
Several years ago, the Center City District also installed crime mapping software, but a version that requires specially trained personnel to run. The creators of UCD-CAMS said that theirs is simpler to operate.
"Ours is built for regular [police] officers to be able to sit down very quickly and get up and running," said Kevin Switala, senior GIS analyst for software creator Gannett Fleming.
The software will only be available for use by officers in the Philadelphia Police Department's University City substation.
However, the data will be shared with other police departments in the area,ÿsuch as Penn's, on a weekly basis. It will also be the center of the monthly meetings of the University City public safety directors -- chaired by Vice President for Public Safety Maureen Rush -- which gather all police agencies, as well as city agencies that deal with quality of life issues such as homelessness.
The University Police Department has its own crime mapping software already in place, but it spans only to their boundary at 43rd Street, versus 50th Street for UCD-CAMS. Rush said that her system will remain in place.
"What we'll do now is use [the UCD] map and our map, and the combination will give us more information than we ever could have expected," Rush said.
A second software program that simplified police deployment procedures was also introduced yesterday. UCD officials believe that the combination has been a factor in allowing University City's crime rate to fall 17 percent more than the city's, comparing 2001 and 2000 figures.
In University City, auto theft fell 70 percent, the biggest drop. Lt. Fred Carbonara, commanding officer of the PPD University City substation, said that the arrest of about four key perpetrators accounted for that drop.
Nonresidential burglary decreased 47 percent and aggravated assault decreased 54 percent, with Carbonara attributed to making police more visible and stepping up patrols.
However, miscellaneous robberies skyrocketed 79 percent within the last year, which Carbonara said was caused by retail thefts gone awry. He maintained that University City is a safe place to be.
"You can't go down two streets without seeing another police officer," Carbonara said.
