Iain

OSINT: From Raw Text to Threat Assessment with Databricks In law enforcement intelligence, analysts are often required to produce intelligence assessments — drawing from human, technical, or…

I tested a Databricks workflow to turn raw OSINT into a strategic summary (Volumes + model endpoint).

Great for processing speed; accuracy, provenance, and bias remain uncertain - use with analyst oversight and clear evaluation criteria.

medium.com/@routineacti...

Not strictly methods, but I have a shelf close by for geospatial methods combined with software and programming guides

Example, Cleveland UK: scoring high crime harm hexagons, including spatial lags, within districts

Example, Brooklyn/NYPD: finding high crime contiguous clusters of street, or individual high crime streets

GitHub - routineactivity/hexseg: Spatial functions for analysing crime by hexagons and street segments Spatial functions for analysing crime by hexagons and street segments - routineactivity/hexseg

Not something I usually do, but excited to share a first attempt at creating a Python package, hexseg.

It assists in streamlining two popular count-based crime analysis methods by creating hexagonal grids or street-segment analyses across geographic study areas.

github.com/routineactiv...

Nice. I've been trying to find time to do something similar with geo data

Police stops and naïve denominators - Crime Science A comparison of the racial composition of police stops to the entire population of a city or jurisdiction is frequently cited as evidence of racial bias in proactive policework. This article argues th...

Police stops and naive denominators
link.springer.com/article/10.1...

a man in a robot suit is standing in front of a factory . ALT: a man in a robot suit is standing in front of a factory .

RoboCop (1987), age 6, definitely up there.

Love this picture #middlesbrough

Spatial and Temporal Patterns of Risk: A Risk Terrain Modeling Approach in Stockholm, Sweden - European Journal on Criminal Policy and Research Decades of criminological research have highlighted the principle that “place matters” when analysing crime dynamics. While acknowledging this, our study emphasises that place matters at specific time...

New paper led by Mia Puur at Lund Uni out ✅
In the paper we show that combining spatial and temporal patterns is important to understand violent crime. Patterns differ a lot across weekdays vs weekends, mornings vs evenings etc.

link.springer.com/article/10.1...

London weapon homicide and gang mapping. Interactive leaflet map using open source data.

routineactivity.github.io/maps/2025-04...

Nice simple way for visualising density as elevation along street networks.

routineactivity.github.io/maps/2025-05...

Just caught up watching Game 2 NYK BOS. Woah! Was not expecting Knicks to take a 2-0 lead playing back-to-back at TD Garden.

Using Open Data to Explore Boston Crime In this mini-project I used three tools:

Using Open Data to Explore Crime in Boston MA - example for how open data, combined with a few open accessible tools — Python, PostgreSQL, and Power BI — can help deliver timely insights from almost real-time data feeds.

medium.com/@routineacti...

Napoli 🇮🇹♥️

The first one in that list was the most memorable, whilst 6-7 primed me for a career in public safety.

..sure there we're more..

Methods in Human Geography: A Guide for Students Doing a Research Project Buy Methods in Human Geography: A Guide for Students Doing a Research Project 1 by Flowerdew, Prof Robin, Martin, David (ISBN: 9780582289734) from Amazon's Book Store. Everyday low prices and free delivery on eligible orders.

8. Methods in Human Geography, Robin Flowerdrew

www.amazon.co.uk/Methods-Huma...

Defensible Space Buy Defensible Space by Newman, Oscar. (ISBN: ) from Amazon's Book Store. Everyday low prices and free delivery on eligible orders.

7. Defensible Space, Oscar Newman

www.amazon.co.uk/Defensible-S...

The Death and Life of Great American Cities Buy The Death and Life of Great American Cities by Jacobs, Jane (ISBN: 9781847926180) from Amazon's Book Store. Everyday low prices and free delivery on eligible orders.

6. The Death and Life of Great American Cities, Jane Jacobs

www.amazon.co.uk/Death-Life-G...

Statistics in Geography Second Edition: A Practical Approach - Revised with 17 Programs Buy Statistics in Geography Second Edition: A Practical Approach - Revised with 17 Programs 2 by Ebdon, David (ISBN: 9780631136880) from Amazon's Book Store. Everyday low prices and free delivery on eligible orders.

5. Statistics in Geography, David Ebdon

www.amazon.co.uk/Statistics-G...

The Global City – New York, London, Tokyo (Princeton Paperbacks) Buy The Global City – New York, London, Tokyo (Princeton Paperbacks) by Sassen, Saskia (ISBN: 9780691070636) from Amazon's Book Store. Free UK delivery on eligible orders.

4. The Global City, Saskia Sassen

www.amazon.co.uk/Global-City-...

City of Quartz: Excavating the Future in Los Angeles (The Essential Mike Davis) Buy City of Quartz: Excavating the Future in Los Angeles (The Essential Mike Davis) by Mike Davis (ISBN: 9781786635891) from Amazon's Book Store. Free UK delivery on eligible orders.

3. City of Quartz, Mike Davis

www.amazon.co.uk/City-Quartz-...

Progress and Poverty: An Economic and Social History of Britain 1700-1850. Buy Progress and Poverty: An Economic and Social History of Britain 1700-1850. 1st.Ed.1995 by Daunton, Martin (ISBN: 9780198222811) from Amazon's Book Store. Everyday low prices and free delivery on eligible orders.

2. Progress and Poverty: An Economic and Social History of Britain 1700-1850, MJ Daunton

www.amazon.co.uk/Progress-Pov...

The Making of the English Landscape (Nature Classics Library) Buy The Making of the English Landscape (Nature Classics Library) Illustrated by W. G. Hoskins, William Boyd (ISBN: 9781908213105) from Amazon's Book Store. Everyday low prices and free delivery on eligible orders.

Thread. Some books I remember reading as part of my Human Geography undergraduate degree.

1. The Making of the English Landscape, W.G. Hoskins

www.amazon.co.uk/Making-Engli...

Evaluating Place-Based Crime Interventions: A Walkthrough of the Home Office Clear, Hold, Build… The Home Office Clear, Hold, Build (CHB) initiative is a place-focused intervention that has been happening in England and Wales since…

Evaluating Place-Based Crime Interventions: A Walkthrough of the Home Office Clear Hold Build Impact Evaluation

(propensity scores, synthetic controls and diff-in-diff)

medium.com/@routineacti...

Ha!

Okay, phrased it another way, hypothetically. Is it better to arrest 300 people for {insert crime type} on a 'day of action', or arrest an {achievable number of persons} for that crime type every day for an entire year?

I guess an existing paper is Mike Scott popcenter.asu.edu/content/bene...

#criminologists #ebp #policing looking for papers that consider effect of days/weeks of action (short crackdowns) comparative to instead embedded regular consistent tactics/management over sustained periods of time, to address chronic problems?

Is this any different to the CBO?

GeoDA offers a free GUI for leveraging spatial libraries from Python geodacenter.github.io