| This thesis presents a study of hotspots in a rural community using crime mapping techniques. In addition, it presents an analysis of calls for service in rural versus urban areas. The rural community being studied is in Farmington, Illinois and the urban area is Peoria, Illinois. All of the Farmington calls for service for a five year period (2004--2008) were collected and analyzed through the use of Predictive Analytics Software (PASW) and crime maps. The results of the descriptive analysis show that traffic calls are the most frequently occurring call for service followed by public service calls. The crime map indicates that the largest hotspot is the southeast quadrant and smaller hotspot in the northwest quadrant of Farmington. The comparison of the rural area of Farmington and the urban area of Peoria shows that the crime trends are similar. Specifically, the results indicate that greatest number of calls for service occurs on the weekends for both cities. Based on these findings, suggestions are offered to improve the delivery of police services to citizens in this rural community. |
