Facilitating public safety analysis through enhanced information sharing: improving the geospatial repository for analysis and safety planning

The University of Virginia Systems and Information Engineering Department is part of a six-year project commissioned by the National Institute of Justice to develop the geospatial repository for analysis and safety planning, GRASP. GRASP is a Web application that allows for the viewing and sharing of spatial data over the Internet. GRASP is a system that allows verified users to upload spatial data, and in turn are rewarded with full access to all public data stored in the database. For the past three years, student teams have progressively added to the design and development of GRASP. During the summer of 2003, GRASP shifted to an implementation phase that focuses on the active recruitment of new data contributors across the United States. To enable this shift in focus, the GRASP Website's usability and functionality have been improved by implementing new software, upgrading old hardware, and conducting usability tests. These improvements have reduced the time required by the system's administrators. The changes have also enabled an 86% decrease in the time required for data sharing between users of different jurisdictions.