Data processing: database and file management or data structures – Database design – Data structure types
Reexamination Certificate
1998-05-19
2001-01-09
Homere, Jean R. (Department: 2777)
Data processing: database and file management or data structures
Database design
Data structure types
C707S793000, C707S793000, C707S793000, C707S793000, C709S203000, C709S216000, C709S219000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06173284
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention generally relates to law enforcement, and more particularly, to computer-based analysis of police records.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
For many police departments, the transition to community problem-oriented policing has transformed the way the police departments conduct business. The community policing paradigm emphasizes problem-solving as the basic unit of work. Police officers accomplish problem-solving goals by developing strong linkages with residents, for-profit firms, non-profit agencies, and corollary government units to provide a variety of services to the community. The foundation of these problem-solving partnerships is effective and timely communication between police and all segments of the community. As police departments become immersed in the problem-solving philosophy, the necessity for early problem identification becomes critical. Problem-solving can occur only after a particular crime or disorderly incident is recognized. Early recognition of potential problems is imperative to problem resolution. However, depending on the nature of the problem, it may take police and citizens a significant amount of time to recognize that several events are really a festering problem. Unfortunately, by the time that the recognition has occurred, the problem may well have reached a level where it takes extensive effort and time to reverse a critical situation which may literally have been years in the making. It is believed by many that if community policing is to succeed in making a lasting difference, and if police departments are to continue to rely on a problem-solving paradigm, that the dissemination of information and problem-solving activities must become more proactive so that crime and disorder can be addressed in its early stages.
For many agencies, early detection is the greatest obstacle to effective problem-solving activities. Generally, the earlier the potential problem is identified, the easier it is to alleviate. Once an entire neighborhood is consumed, the more difficult it is to eradicate the problem. For example, in an ideal case, police officers would recognize and take corrective actions after a third incident of house breaking instead of after receiving notification in a monthly report that fifteen incidences have occurred. Therefore, early pattern identification may help provide for increases in the probability of problem resolution through early intervention.
For many police departments, limited use of information as a strategic resource is one of the greatest impediments to early problem identification and remediation. Current information resources, such as computers and automated databases, often times do not have the needed capability to get the right information to the right people in a timely manner. Lack of adequate technology resources can thwart the methods of analyzing and addressing a problem before it threatens a citizen's safety or contributes to neighborhood disintegration. When there is technology such as database search engines that can provide officers with searchable information, the burden of searching the database on an ongoing basis for crime patterns currently falls on the police officer. In such cases, the police officers must routinely search through the databases to determine if specific events have occurred which could lead to a potential problem.
For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,510,978 to Colgan describes a computerized community policing system which provides search capabilities that enable police officers to identify prior crime reports or other data that matches a desired crime profile. In general, the police officer can query a database to identify prior reports which include one or more key words identified by a police officer. However, the computerized police system described in the Colgan patent appears to require police officers to take the initiative to repeatedly query the database as to whether any newly added crime report matches the desired crime profile. Since police officers are already generally overburdened, it is unlikely that police officers will check the database on a frequent basis. As a result of the likely delay between the time that a crime report is entered into the database and the time that a police officer checks the database for the desired crime profile, the information contained by the crime report may become stale, and therefore, significantly less useful.
Thus, an unsatisfied need exists in the industry for a computer-based system for monitoring police records in a manner which reduces the burden upon police officers to repeatedly check the database while, at the same time, notifying one or more police officers of crime reports that match a desired crime profile in a timely fashion.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide an improved system for problem identification by police departments.
Another object of the present invention is to provide an improved system for monitoring police records.
Another object of the present invention is to provide an automated system that monitors police records on an ongoing basis for matches to predefined crime profiles.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a system for monitoring police records for predefined crime profiles and for notifying a police officer, or group of police officers, when a match for the profile occurs.
These and other objects of the present invention are provided by systems, methods and computer program products that provide for automatically monitoring information or police reports in a police database, including newly entered reports, for matches to predefined crime profiles. The predefined crime profiles are established by police officers, and may include one or more request terms (i.e., request data), a frequency term, and notification information for the officer who defined the crime profile. The frequency term indicates how often the police database is searched for matches to the crime profile. The notification information can be utilized to automatically send notification to the police office, or group of police officers, that defined the crime profile when a match occurs.
In accordance with an aspect of the present invention, a law enforcement data analysis system for automatically monitoring police records for a crime profile may comprise a user interface module that receives user inputted query information defining a search query for searching for the crime profile, and a server module which receives the user inputted query information from the user interface module and transforms the user inputted query information into a database procedure. A database module executes the procedure against a police record database, and generates a notification signal if a match to the search query occurs. A notification module receives the notification signal, and generates a notification message to a user in response to the notification signal.
The user interface module may comprise a hypertext markup language (HTML) document configured to receive the user inputted query information through an Internet browser program. In a preferred embodiment, the HTML document comprises dynamic HTML.
The user inputted query information comprises request data, a frequency term, and notification data. The request data may define at least one element of the crime profile, and the frequency term indicates a frequency at which the procedure is executed by the database module. For example, the user may be able to select a frequency term such as real-time, hourly, daily, or weekly. The notification data may comprise an electronic mail address and/or a pager number for notifying the user, or a designated group of users, if and when a record is entered in the database as detected via the execution of the procedure.
In accordance with a feature of the present invention, the server module may generate a structured query language (SQL) statement based on the user inputted query information. The server module may then generate a procedure based upon the SQ
Alston & Bird LLP
Homere Jean R.
University of Charlotte City of Charlotte
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