DESIGN AND IMPLEMENTATION OF A COMPUTERIZED CRIME TRACKING INFORMATION SYSTEM

1.1 Introduction

Computerized Crime Tracking Information System allows police personnel to plan effectively for emergency response, determine mitigation priorities, analyze historical events, and predict future events. Crime tracking system helps identify potential suspects to increase investigators suspect base when no leads are evident. The ability to access and process information quickly while displaying it in a spatial and visual medium allows agencies to allocate resources quickly and more effectively. In the ‘mission-critical' nature of law enforcement, information about the location of a crime, incident, suspect, or victim is often crucial to determine the manner and size of the response. Police Database Security software helps co-ordinate vast amounts of location-based data from multiple sources. It enables the user to layer the data and view the data most critical to the particular issue or mission. It is used world over by police departments, both large and small, to provide solutions for crime analysis, criminal tracking, traffic safety, community policing, Intranet/Internet mapping, and numerous other tasks.

As a prelude to other parts of this study, this chapter will discuss the background upon which this study was initiated, the statement of problems that led to this study, the Aim and Objectives of the study. Others are Significance of the study, Scope of work, Limitations of the Study and Definition of technical terms.

1.2 Background of Study

National security is the requirement to maintain the survival of the state through the use of economic, security operatives especially police, political power and the exercise of diplomacy. The concept developed mostly in the United States of America after World War II focusing on the police and military might. Now, it encompasses a broad range of facets, all of which impinge on the police and military for economic security of the nation, lives property and values protected by national society. Accordingly, in order to possess national security, a nation needs to possess economic security, energy security, environmental security, etc. Security threats involve not only conventional foes such as other national states but also non state factors such as violent non-state actors, narcotic cartels, multinational corporations and non-governmental organizations; some authorities include natural disasters and events causing severe environmental change in this category.

The origin of the modern concept of “national security” as a philosophy of maintaining a stable nation state can be traced to the peace of Westphalia, wherein the concept of a sovereign state, ruled by a sovereign, became the basis of a new international order of nation states. As an academic concept, national security can be seen as a recent phenomenon which was first introduced in the United States after World War II, and has to some degree replaced other concepts that describe the struggle of states to overcome various external and internal threats. The struggle of states to overcome various external and internal threats, the earliest mention of the term national security, however, was made in Yale University in 1790 wherein was made to its relation with domestic industries.

The concept of the national security became an official guiding principle of foreign policy in the United States when the National security Act of 1947 was signed on July 26, 1947 by the U.S. President Harry S. Truman. Together with its 1949 amendment, this act create American national security d important facets for American national security as the precursor to the department of defense, subordinated the security operatives branches to the new cabinet level position of the secretary of defense, established the National Security council and the Central Intelligence Agency. The Act did not define national security which was conceivably advantageous as it's ambiguity made it a powerful phrase to invoke whenever issues threatened by other interests of the state, such as domestic concerns, came up for discussion and decision making.

Crime tracking system allows police personnel to plan effectively for emergency response, determine mitigation priorities, analyses historical events, and predict future events. Crime tracking system helps identify potential suspects to increase investigators suspect base when no leads are evident. Crime tracking software helps co-ordinate vast amounts of location-based data from multiple sources. It enables the user to layer the data and view the data most critical to the particular issue or mission. It is used world over by police departments, both large and small, to provide solutions for crime analysis, criminal tracking, traffic safety, community policing, Intranet/Internet mapping, and numerous other tasks.

Crime tracking system helps crime officers determine potential crime sites by examining complex seemingly unrelated criteria and displaying them all in an interface. It also helps them map inmate populations, fixtures, and equipment to provide for the safety of inmates by separating gang members, identifying high-risk or potentially violent inmates, and identifying hazardous locations in an area. It reduces the potential for internal violence by providing better command and control. Traditionally, these activities have been supported by paper and pen. Police officers now have the ability to immediately generate crime report directly relevant to the situation at hand. Police agencies collect vast amounts of data from many sources including called-for-services, arrests, first information reports and daily report. The same information provides a powerful decision making tool for investigators, supervisors, and administrators.

1.3 Statement of the Problem

Database Security system has always played a vital role in the stability of a nation. Keeping security information manually can hinder some defense program and delay passage of security information to the appropriate body. Manual documentation of security information can lead to exposure of the information thereby creating threat to the nation at large. Hence, there is need for an automated Database Security System to guaranty safety of information.

1.4 Aim and Objectives of the Study

The aim of the study is to develop a database for security information storage and retrieval. In achieving this aim, the following specific objectives were laid out as follows:

1. To build a database system for crime tracking information.
2. To develop a software for managing security information.
3. To determine the effectiveness of Nigerian police in managing signal.

1.5 Significance of Study

Implementation of a Computerized Crime Tracking Information System by the Nigerian police will help the police and the masses to get useful information on individuals with crime records. The system developed will among other things to:

1. Maintain a database of all crime records
2. Enable a quick search on the database to retrieve crime information
3. Enables the Nigerian police to track previous crimes committed by a suspect.
4. Improved operational efficiency through the use of a standardized system, searchable digital repository of relevant documents, automated workload distributed and virtual boarding of cases.

This study will be of immense benefit to other researchers who intend to know more on this study and can also be used by non-researchers to build more on their research work. This study contributes to knowledge and could serve as a guide for other study.

1.6 Scope of Study

The study focuses on the Design and Implementation of a Computerized Crime Tracking Information System, which is limited to database designation for security information storage and retrieval.

1.7 Limitations of the Study

During the course of this study, many things militated against its completion, some of which are:

1. Time Constraint: The time frame given to accomplish this project was very short due to school academic calendar and it was carried out under pressure which made the researcher not to implement some necessary features.
2. Establishment Policies: Establishment policies posed a serious limitation as most staffs are not ready to release information needed for this project work. There were lots of information needed from the staffs of this institution to enhance the study which took them time to release or they did not release at all for security purposes, hence the scope was reduced.
3. Research material: availability of research material is a major setback to the scope of the study.
4. Frequent power failure: This made the researcher append more money on fuel to ensure sustainable power.
5. Financial Constraint: Insufficient fund tends to impede the efficiency of the researcher in sourcing for the relevant materials, literature or information and in the process of data collection (internet).

1.8 Definition of Terms

Policing: Policing is another way of depicting the police.

Anti-policing: Anti-policing is the society's social attitude opposed to war between states and in particular countering arguments based on policism.

Databases: A systematically arranged collection of computer data, structured so that it can be automatically retrieved or manipulated. It is also called a databank.

National Security: The requirement to maintain the survival of the nation-state through the use of economic, policing, and political power and the exercise of diplomacy.

Information Security: Means protecting information and information systems from unauthorized access, use, disclosure, disruption, modification, perusal, inspection, recording, or destruction.

Classified Information: Is sensitive information to which the access is restricted by law or regulation to particular groups of persons.

Security Management: Is a broad field of management related to asset management, physical security and human resource safety functions.