GIS Approach in Analysis of Crime Mapping in Yenagoa Local Government Area of Bayelsa State, Nigeria

Yenagoa Local Government Area in Bayelsa State is one of major Local government areas that had high crime rates. Different data sources were employed; crime records of  three consecutively years (January, 2013 to December2013,January 2014 to December2014 and January 2015 to December 2015) were used in the classification of the types of crime with respect to the spots of occurrences, 1m resolution Ikonos image was georeferenced and features such as roads, rivers and boundaries were extracted and Township-facilities, police stations, and settlements x,y coordinates were obtained through the use of handheld GPS.  ArcGIS version 10.2.2 (2014) was used for the analyses and results revealed that there was a marked variation in the distribution of crime between and within the zones. The study revealed that theft and other stealing were the most common types of crime in the area with 528 cases accounting for 40.03%, assault accounted for 22.59%, while false pretense and cheating accounted for 9.63% and armed robbery for 6.82%. Murder has 4.47% while burglary and rape, indecent assault and house breaking have 4.02%, 3.71% and 3.64% respectively. The hotspots within the city wall was computed base on the formular derived and The buffered zones of 1.6Kms were used and it shown that places like Akumani, Okodia and Okotiama were not well adequately covered, areas of high and low frequency of crime occurrence were also highlighted and various maps were produced.