In the Nation's Capital

I am in Washington, D.C. this morning at the annual conference of the National Institute of Justice--the research arm of the United States Department of Justice. I was invited (at their expense) to serve on a plenary panel discussing the use of police GIS data to support broader public policy initiatives. I'll be discussing three: efforts to control the density of liquor licenses, the University Place redevelopment project and the Northeast Team substation, and the Stronger Safer Neighborhoods initiative. All three of these public policy initiatives were propelled in large part by police data.

About 1,800 people are attending the conference, a mix of academic researchers and criminal justice personnel. I am also attending conference presentations. Yesterday, I went to some interesting breakout sessions concerning sex offender residency restrictions, cell phone forensics, and new developments in crime analysis. The luncheon presentation by Dr. David Kennedy concerning race, crime, and common ground was quite thought provoking. The sex offender session covered many of the same issues intern Kyle Heitbrink worked on, and ground that has been covered before in The Chief's Corner.

My panel session is this morning, and I hope my PowerPoint runs OK. It's got some twists and turns in it that could be a little tricky.

I ran into a bunch of old acquaintances here, including Dr. Greg DeLone (UNO School of Criminology and Criminal Justice, Dr. Julie Horney (Dean of the School of Criminal Justice, State University of New York at Albany, formerly UNO Criminal Justice Department), and lots of others. A short "hello" from a young crime analyst at the Rochester, NY Police Department made my day, though. Chris Delaney introduced himself, and told me that he is a regular reader of The Chief's Corner. "Get a life," I told him. ;-)