The dream of the Royal Virgin Islands Police Force’s Systems Manager Sergeant Claude Rymer to electronically map crime throughout the Territory has finally become a reality.
The Royal Virgin Islands Police Force rolled out its new interactive crime mapping system in a short presentation on Tuesday March 9th, at Police Headquarters with the Governor, Commissioner and senior officers in attendance. The interactive platform will place much of the details necessary to equip officers when responding to an incident at their fingertips.
Data from the types of crime, frequency, to the specific location and CCTV footage within that geographical location will be provided on interactive maps. Intelligence gathering and crime analysis will be made easier and quicker throughout this platform. The technology allows officers to make better proactive decisions.
His Excellency the Governor John J. Rankin congratulated Sergeant Rymer, and his Police Technical Advisory Team for the very specialized and time consuming work that went into creating the dashboard and advocates for the sharing of this technology with other overseas territories.
Commissioner of Police Michael Matthew also noted his delight in seeing this long-awaited roll out promised by Sergeant Rymer before his exit from office in April.
“The best departure present I could receive as Commissioner is this new interactive platform. It will modernize how and when we use our limited resources and will assist the Force with operational deployments, and identify crime hotspots for drugs and firearms. This will substantially boost the Force’s crime-fighting capability,” the Commissioner noted.
Sergeant Rymer credited the Town and Country Planning Department and its head, Greg Adams, for developing the base for platform by offering its geographic information technology. The programmer and developer for the GIS team in the department is Troy Dawson.