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Clerk of Court grant award expands crime mapping effort
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The Virginia Department of Criminal Justice Services has awarded the Wise County and Norton Clerk of Court office a $66,500 grant to continue advancing the use of Geographic Information System and Global Positioning System in law enforcement.
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The grant will be used to improve crime mapping applications for local law enforcement, ranging from annual crime analysis "hot spots" to on-going criminal investigations.
The collaboration between the clerk's office and local law enforcement agencies has helped expand GIS technology into crime analysis mapping and provided GPS handhelds to each Wise County and Norton law enforcement agency. It also has provided GIS training to law enforcement officers in partnership with Mountain Empire Community College's Distance Education.
Since the launch of crime mapping two years ago, the commonwealth attorney's office has used GIS mapping to accurately depict distance and location of crime scenes in criminal trials. The Wise County Sheriff's Department regularly uses GIS in its criminal investigations.
Expanding the use of GIS and GPS technology also creates new research assistantships in criminal analysis for local college students majoring in criminal justice, notes Circuit Court Clerk Jack Kennedy, who has headed the effort. "Criminal analysis training is an important professional career advantage today," Kennedy said.
Criminal justice student majors of any regional higher educational institution may apply to participate in the Crime Mapping Project.
Wise County's GIS system was originally derived from the DEVELOP Scholars Program funded by a National Aeronautics and Space Administration grant. More than 75 local students have been involved with the program from its inception in 2001.
The DEVELOP Scholars Program is multidisciplinary and favors students with interests in science and engineering. More information is available at the Clerk of Court office.
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