US university develops new software toolkit for law enforcement agencies

Purdue University researchers in the US, have designed and developed a new tool, known as the visual analytics law enforcement toolkit (VALET) for law enforcement officers and disaster assistance first-responders to reduce crime and assist people.

The toolkit has been designed to provide real-time data to analyse high-volume criminal, traffic and civil incident data as well as related emergency management and disaster preparedness events for officers to be more strategic.

Purdue University police chief John Cox said that the VALET toolkit enables users to pull data to better position to put officers in the right place at the right time when a situation arises.

"Providing this type of situational awareness gives us the higher level of assessment so we can better cover high-crime areas or give officers context of what is happening so they know what they are walking into when on patrol or responding to a call," Cox added.

Capable of using on most computers, the VALET software’s companion software, known as iVALET, has been developed specifically for the iPhone and iPad.

Additionally, the new technology allows law enforcement agencies to visualise and analyse datasets in linked geospatial or mapping interactively and allows temporal views of time graphs, calendars and clock views.

The VALET programme involves the Purdue University and West Lafayette police departments, Tippecanoe County Sheriff’s Office and the Ohio State Highway Patrol.

The project is funded by the US Department of Homeland Security, Command, Control and Interoperability Center of Excellence at Purdue University.