Developing an Interoperable Crime Management System

Enhancing the interagency collaborative approach to crime management in developing nations cannot be overemphasized. This study presents a computerized system posed to enhance interagency collaboration in combating crime in Nigeria. Interagency Crime Management System (ICMS) is a web-based application that accepts input through an Application Program Interface (API) provided to the individual applications being used by different security agencies under the Federal Government of Nigeria. The system is based on a relational database with schemas very close to those of law enforcement agencies. The system was designed to accept data in the same input format from each of these agencies. These are the criminal code, name of criminal, nationality, state of origin, the local government of origin, age, nature of the crime committed, location of the crime, a section of the penal code violated, current status as at when reporting, officer-in-charge, and reporting agency. To achieve this, the study adopted the Structured System Analysis and Design Methodology (SSADM). The process starts with designing a framework for ICMS, then furthered by developing an algorithm for ICMS, and Laravel was employed for the implementation of the algorithm developed. The database management software employed for the application, PostgreSQL, stores every detail of the crime using a unique reference number for every record stored in the database to facilitate easy retrieval. This system also provides a search facility to query the database about information relating to the various categories of crime, criminals, and crimes that are common in particular geographical location and provide analytics tools such as charts for research and analysis purposes.