Web Mapping Site Against Crime

The Washington College Geographic Information System (GIS) Programme recently launched a new statewide web-GIS application called the Maryland Offender Management System (MOMS) for use by Maryland Division of Parole and Probation (DPP) case officers and Maryland law enforcement and criminal justice agencies. MOMS is funded by a grant from the Maryland Governor's Office of Crime Control and Prevention (GOCCP) in support of Governor O'Malley's emphasis on reducing crime by improving monitoring of violent repeat offenders and reducing recidivism.

Washington College contracted geographIT to design, develop, and implement MOMS using Esri's Silverlight Application Programming Interface (API), ArcGIS Server, and Microsoft's Bing Maps to replace a legacy version that used Esri's web Application Development Framework (web ADF). The new MOMS interface consists of animated map controls enabling users to search, retrieve, analyse, map and download data about individuals serving parole, probation, or who have a juvenile offender record. Officers can ‘mouse over' a map symbol to quickly view case data and mug shots. A query builder tool supports complex SQL formatted queries across multiple database columns. A buffer tool retrieves cases within a user specified distance of a map location or address. Mug shots returned by search results can be opened to create a ‘police line-up' of suspects, and search results can be downloaded as Excel or CSV format files. MOMS was implemented using the Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure (HTTPS) encryption protocol for secure transmission between browser clients and the application server.