COMMISSIONER of Police George Quallo has lauded the Geospatial Information System (GIS) for the part it has been playing in the management of crime.

The police chief was the guest speaker at this year’s (Ministry of Economic Growth and Job Creation) National Spatial Data Management Division — Land Information Council of Jamaica 15th GIS Day held this week at the University of the West Indies.

“There is no doubt that controlling crime in Jamaica is a monumental task which can be overwhelming at times,” the police commissioner said. He added that “a big part of the problem is the slow pace of modernising the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF), as opposed to how quickly criminals make use of newer technologies to commit crimes”.

The JCF, which has embraced the use of GIS since 1991, utilises the Geospatial Information System to map its assets across the country, locate distress calls to its 119 centre, and identifying crime hotspot and road traffic cars spot.

Quallo also referred to the recent upgrading of the Police emergency Control Centre, where the ‘big books’ used for logging reports and incidents have been removed and replaced with a more advanced computer networking system that uses mapping technology to ‘geo locate’ incident locations based on information that is provided by the caller.

Additionally, he said, support has been received from the Ministry of National Security with the introduction of the Stay Alert application. “The app, in my estimation, is a game changer in the fight against crime and should be downloaded by all Jamaicans who have a smartphone,” said Quallo.

Commissioner Quallo said, too, that the electronic station diary, which has been introduced in recent years as a pilot project in some police divisions, will eventually replace the ‘big book’, as most Jamaicans refer to it.

Said the commissioner: “Technology continues to advance and change, and in so doing, it advances and changes the profession of law enforcement and other careers in criminology and criminal justice. The Geospatial Information System will not only help the police in solving complex crimes and plotting preventative initiatives, but the ripple effect will see Jamaica benefiting from a lower crime rate, which translates into safer communities.”