DESIGN AND IMPLEMENTATION OF WEB BASED CRIME REPORTING SYSTEM

By

Author

Presented To

Department of Computer Science

ABSTRACT

Crime is part of human activities and needs to be managed. No human society has ever been totally free of deviants and it is unlikely that society will ever be. The more populated and complex a society becomes the wider the range of antisocial conducts that must be controlled by the government through the armed forces and other agencies especially the Police Force. The incident-based system reports on a much broader range of crimes and includes data on the circumstances of the crime, the victim, and the defendant. The current crime reporting system is faced with several difficulties as there is no instant means of reporting crime other than telephone calls, messaging or perhaps face-to-face which is usually cumbersome especially where the reporter wishes to keep anonymity. The proposed crime reporting system aims to assist the Nigerian Police in their bid to solve crimes with timely and useful information about criminals and/or their mode of operations so as to nip in the bud criminal activities in a given locality. Finally, a prototype crime reporting system was designed that relies on four reporting forms: a complaint or dispatch reporting form, a crime event report form, follow-up investigation report form, and an arrest report form. The system consists of three functional modules: a data capture module, a report management and control module, and a data utilization module. Future work on crime reporting system can be tailored towards accessibility (mobile version), awareness and improvement on the usage

CHAPTER ONE

1.0 INTRODUCTION

Modern society is characterized by increasing levels of global social mobility and uncertainty relating to levels of risk posed by internal and external security threats. Within this climate security driven by technology is increasingly being used by governments, corporate bodies and individuals to monitor and reduce risk [1]. There has been an acceptance that the criminal justice system is limited in its capacity to control crime which has led to the exploration of other avenues for tackling crime [2] and this has provided a market for private companies to push forward the growth of technological security innovations. Crime is a human experience and is as old as the human race. Crime is geographical. It occurs at a specific place, specific time and for a specific reason. It can affect everyone and anyone at any time.

Both Information Technology (IT) and crime are complex and constantly changing. Social and technological changes introduce new targets, tools and motives for crime. E-crime targets include confidential information, technical infrastructure and denial of service. Improved and faster technology and worldwide communications make it easier to both organise and conceal crime. Software to help criminals is available, even as commercial products: criminals have used attack-testing software to probe the security of target systems. Motivations now include terrorism and revenge as well as traditional desires for financial gain.

Terrorists might not be rational in their motivation; casual opportunists look for an open door; organized crime will evaluate potential gains against investment " which might be massive if the potential rewards are attractive enough.

1.1 BACKGROUND OF THE RESEARCH

Crime reporting is the first of the nine basic Youth Crime Watch components. Most simply, it's giving the proper authorities information you have about crime that might be committed, crime that has been committed, someone who was involved in committing a crime. Young people understand the importance of reporting crime. They want safer schools and neighborhoods, and if they know how to report effectively, they'll do it. Young people can help encourage peers to report crime in the making as well as information on crimes under investigation.

Online Crime Report System helps in getting the different police stations to share information and get in contact with one another, the aim of this project is to develop an online crime reporting and management system which is easily accessible to the public, the police department and the administrative department.

The crime information dictionary provides a facility of reporting crime, Searching, different crime ratio and most wanted criminals online.

With the increase of communication system and management applications in our day to day life and public service sector developing online crime reporting system will be a helpful software application. This application works on web where public and police department can use to get effective service compare to the existing manual record management method.

1.2STATEMENT OF RESEARCH PROBLEM 

Crime is part of human activities and needs to be managed. No human society has ever been totally free of deviants and it is unlikely that society will ever be. The more populated and complex a society becomes the wider the range of anti-social conduct that must be controlled by government using police power. The incident-based system reports on a much broader range of crimes and includes data on the circumstances of the crime, the victim, and the defendant [3]. The current crime reporting system is faced with several difficulties as there is no instant means of reporting crime rather than telephone calls, messaging or perhaps face-to-face which is always cumbersome in a case the reporter might want to keep anonymity. To strengthen crime reporting system, an online system is enhanced to fully take the responsibility of reporting crime in a manner that will be useful to the Nigerian Police Force (NPF). For instance, in cases involving property crime the incident-based system will report on the:

•type and description of the article;

•its value;

•type of loss (e.g., stolen, vandalized);

•type of victim (e.g., individual, business);

•and location of crime (e.g., convenience store, residence).

1.3 OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY

The objective of this research work is centered on the research topic itself, which is to design and implement a web based application for crime reporting which will be developed using the web platform tools.

The aim of CRS is to assist the Nigerian Police Force (NPF) in their bid to solve crimes with timely and useful information about criminals and/or their mode of operations so as to nip in the bud criminal activities in a given locality.

Other of its objective are

1.To review what has been done so far relating to this research work.

2.To develop software that will receive and store crime reports.

3.To make the crime records available online to facilitate distribution to different police stations.

4.To provide a deterministic crime reporting model

5.To create a distributed data warehouse for crime reporting based on the model.

1.4 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

The enhanced data quality of the incident-based reporting system will be of significant benefit to state and local governing bodies, criminal justice agencies, and the public. Data from the incident-based system will enhance both strategic and tactical decision making in criminal justice.

Because incident-based data will provide a more accurate picture of a community's crime patterns, decisions regarding law enforcement, judicial, and correctional resources can be made based on empirical data. Similarly, the level of detail provided by incident-based data can assist law enforcement agencies and the community to identify crime problems in their community such as:

• crime hotspots

• populations who are at risk and

• Drug and alcohol problems.

Crime prevention strategies may then be developed and evaluated based on empirical evidence.

This study will also assist policy analyst to understand both factors that impedes the efficiency and effectiveness of the police and the ways by which the situation could be improved upon so as to bring crime and disorders in the society to its barest minimum. Finally, this study will go a long way in contributing to the knowledge of police work. Besides, other researchers and students in higher institutions especially those in sociology department can derive various secondary data from this study.

1.5SCOPE OF THE STUDY

This study is a research geared towards correcting the factors affecting the crime reporting, investigation and correction role of the Nigeria police. In view of the scope, an online crime reporting application will be implemented.

1.6 PURPOSE OF THE PROJECT 

The aim of this project is to develop an online crime report and managing system which is easily accessible to the public. The police department and the administrative department 

This system registers the complaints from people through online and it will also helpful to police department in catching criminals, in system and person can give any complaint at any tie

1.7PROBLEM IN EXISTING SYSTEM

In general people in Nigeria are afraid to give a complaint in police station because they are filled with a false fear about the police department. An online complaint registration system will solve the fear of the public and which also helps police department catching criminals and taking appropriate action

PROPOSED SYSTEM: -

An online solution is very useful as the solution is inherently distributive. This distributive characteristic of the online solution helps in getting the different police stations to share information and get in contact with one another

A web application is to manage criminal details in a centralized database and provide solution for public to give complaint through online and get online service.

1.8LIMITATION OF THE STUDY

This project was constrained by the following factors:

(a)Financial Constraints

Bearing in mind the economic state of the nation, it was found difficult in making both ends meet, because of the exorbitant nature of things nowadays in travelling for the collection of data needed for the project.

(b)Time Constraints

Looking at the interval between the resumption and vacation of the final semester for the project to be completed, the time given seemed to be short for the collection of required information for better work to be done.

(c)Non-Availability of Material

During this project, it was noticed that the required materials needed for the project are not documented. Those that were documented lacked storage facilities where they can be reached.

1.7DEFINITION OF TERMS

SYSTEM SECURITY refers to the technical innovations and procedures applied to the hardware and operation systems to protect against deliberate or accidental damage from a defined threat.

DATA SECURITY is the protection of data from loss, disclosure, modification and destruction.

SYSTEM INTEGRITY refers to the power functioning of hardware and programs, appropriate physical security and safety against external threats such as eavesdropping and wiretapping.

PRIVACY defines the rights of the user or organizations to determine what information they are willing to share with or accept from others and how the organization can be protected against unwelcome, unfair or excessive dissemination of information about it.

CONFIDENTIALITY is a special status given to sensitive information in a database to minimize the possible invasion of privacy. It is an attribute of information that characterizes its need for protection.

SOFTWARE: is a collection of data that tells the system how to perform a particular task or operation. Or a sequential step by step process of carrying out a task instruction.

SYSTEM: is a set of computer components (that is, the assembling of hardware, software and peripherals to function together)

DATABASE: a database is a systematically arranged collection of computer data so that it can automatically retrieved of manipulated. It is also called a data bank.

APPLICATION: An application program (or application for short) is a computer program designed to perform a group of coordinated functions, tasks, or activities for the benefit of the user