03-08-2013, 12:37 PM
ONLINE CRIME REPORTING AND MANAGEMENT SYSTEM
ONLINE CRIME.pdf (Size: 2.39 MB / Downloads: 123)
ABSTRACT:
The aim of this project was to develop an online crime reporting and management system which was
easily accessible to the public all over the Kiambu County, the police department and the administrative
department in Kiambu. The normal public in Kiambu County and generally in Kenya is afraid to lodge a
complaint or even report a crime to the police stations because they are filled with fear of the harassment
by the police department.
The project titled “online crime reporting and management system” is a web based application. Like the
title suggests the software will provide facility for reporting crimes, making complaints, report missing
persons, show most wanted person details, show lost and found persons and properties, report theft,
manage reported crimes among other things. The project specifically looks into the crime detection and
prevention.
Different modules in this project included visitor‟s module, registered user‟s module, and administrator
module. The visitor‟s module will enable the visitor to view latest hot news (latest news update) that have
been updated by the administrator. The registered user module provides the client with the facility for
reporting crimes, missing persons, view most wanted persons, making complaints etc. The administrator‟s
module provides facility for full administration of the website by responding to client requests, it also
allows for adding new admin, managing most wanted persons and missing persons, managing hot news
and crimes among other things.
INTRODUCTION
The objective of the project was to develop a site in which any citizen can report crimes. If anybody
wants to report any kind of crime he/she can do it through the site. The Crime Management and Reporting
System make the crime reporting easier. This project will be useful for the Police Department. The home
page provides the login capability for both the registered users and administrators. Only the
Administrators in-charge of different Police Stations will be able to login to their home pages. The citizen
could only report crimes and missing persons and property while enjoying the facilities being provided to
the unregistered citizen.
BACKGROUND INFORMATION
Generally, most police departments in the developed nations have recorded substantial progress in using
ICT in management and service delivery whereas their counter parts in the less developed nations have
not. This has enabled the police stations in developed countries to provide improved service delivery to its
citizens as well as improved interaction with its citizens. The resulting benefits have been increased
transparency, cost reduction among other benefits. However, ICT has not yet been fully utilized by the
police departments in developing nations including our country thus resulting to poor service delivery to
the public.
PROBLEM JUSTIFICATION
With the high increase in population in the country, the economy of Kenya has negatively been
influenced. This has seen its citizens indulging in lots of businesses in order to earn a living. This makes
them so much busy to a point that they don‟t get time to do some of their responsibilities such as
reporting crime.
Sometimes the officials end up harassing the citizens reporting the crimes and if there is a way to report
crimes without having to go to police stations then this problem could be avoided. At other times when
one reports about a missing person or property, this gets only to the police station where you have
reported but don‟t get to other police stations all over the County or to a larger extent all over Kenya and
this narrows down the area of investigation. In spite of the development of Information Technology in
Kenya, little study has been done to analyze the problems affecting the performance of the Police
department in Kenya.
GLOBAL PERSPECTIVE
Reporting of crimes online is becoming very popular with millions of people seeing the benefit of using
this great online facility offered by various police departments in their respective nations. United States
States-FBI department and Canada are amongst the countries offering this facility. New York Police
Department also have an online system that allows public to report crimes. I have borrowed some
functionalities ideas in NYPD such as displaying of most wanted persons which have been well
captured(http://www.nyc.gov).
It is estimated that more than 80% of all households in United States now have computers in their home,
and of those, almost 92% have internet access. As computers became more prevalent in American society,
the next natural advancement in communication was through the internet. Private businesses not only
advertise their products online they also complete internet sales to customers buying from their home. As
this trend continues it shows that people are becoming more comfortable with using web based programs.
(Nielsen Report, 2008).
According to a study done by Cartwright, there are several benefits to employing the online citizen police
reporting system. Chief is the reduction in time and resources spent on responding to and writing reports.
The end Result is maintaining the same level of service to an increasing population for the same money or
a decreasing budget (Cartwright, 2008). In this research 16 Law Enforcement agencies in the United
States and Canada, each serving a population of at least 250,000 full time residents were identified. All
the agencies have employed the online crime reporting program for at least one calendar year (2009).
These agencies were surveyed to determine the success of the program from both the satisfaction of their
citizens as well as the agencies offering the program.
REGIONAL PERSPECTIVE
Regionally countries like Ghan and South Africa also have their police departments allowing for online
crime reporting. This has been so for the past few years to many other countries in Africa that have been
recording a considerable development in the ICT infrastructure allowing them to use internet almost in
every sector including security sector. According to a study (Bohan, 2005), an online crime reporting
system is a prime example of a modern day technology designed to make the world a superior place to
live. An online system affords police officers the opportunity to patrol “hot spots” and remain available
quickly to respond to violent crimes.
There is no denying we live in the age of technology. To turn our backs on the worldly innovations of
mankind is an injustice to the public for whom we (law enforcement) are sworn to serve and protect!
Technology is the ticket to the future, and those standing without a ticket must be prepared to survive in a
world where computers will one day control everything from our televisions to our toothbrushes.
LOCAL PERSPECTIVE
In Kenya, many organizations are now embracing the improvement of the ICT and also the availability of
internet connectivity .Currently, 15 ISPs are operating in Kenya thus making it one of the largest Internet
Community in Sub-Saharan Africa. There is therefore the need to ensure that almost all sectors including
security sector make use of this facility (i.e. internet) in providing their services to ensure they keep up to
the current trend.
According to one of the local newspapers (i.e. The East African Standard), the police department in
Kenya has set up a website to enhance service delivery and combat crime. Information posted on the site
includes names of senior officers, crime statistics, how to report crime and make a complaint and when
one needs to call 999 emergency line. Also available is a list of wanted persons and their pictures,
telephone numbers of most of the police stations across the country, status of police reforms, a section of
traffic updates and services offered by the force. The department has also explained how to hire its
services, which include police officers, vehicles and dogs.
HARDWARE INTERFACES
Since this application will run over the internet, all the hardware interfaces such as the computers
shall require connecting them to the internet. For example the police stations will use Modems or DSL
(Digital Subscriber Lines), or in case the police station uses WAN (Wide Area Network) or Local Area
Network (LAN), then it uses Ethernet Cross-Cable.
This software will also support the interactions with hardware‟s as printers that will allow the
Administrators to get a hard copy of the documents such as the different kind of reports generated by the
system. The software will also be able to run on all type of computer with web browsers and connected to
the internet and thus supporting any device used in those computers to navigate the system.
EXISTING SYSTEM
In the existing crime management system, most of the operations are done manually like send complaints,
taking actions against crimes etc. So with the existing system if anybody wants to complaint against
crimes he must do it through the police station, they have to physically present themselves to the police
stations.
If we are doing the system manually, many minor errors will occur, the crime reporters might as well be
afraid to be interrogated while reporting thus making some crimes going unreported. Error detection in
the previous entries made and data cross verification is another important function. These are done
manually, and it would take time.
PROPOSED SYSTEM
The aim of proposed system was to develop a system of improved facilities. The proposed system can
overcome all the limitations of the existing system. The system provides proper security and reduces the
manual work. The existing system has several disadvantages and many more difficulties to work well.
17The proposed system tries to eliminate or reduce these difficulties up to some extent. The proposed
system will help the user to reduce the workload and mental conflict. The proposed system helps the user
to work user friendly and he can easily do his jobs without time lagging.