Hotspot favorites etc.

Profiler on the hunt for criminals with app and maps

Crimes and their accumulation at certain locations are displayed in points. Hotspots such as Favoriten (small picture) can also be identified.

(Bild: Krone KREATIV/stock.adobe.com)

For several years now, a team at the Federal Criminal Police Office has been working with an app that provides geographical information on potential criminals. The office has now been recognized for its groundbreaking investigations in the USA. 

Highly concentrated, two investigators put their heads together over a monitor. On the screen, they study maps showing where a serial killer has struck. Suddenly they have a brilliant idea: there is a certain street that the killer regularly uses for his bloody rampages.

It's just a scene from the popular TV series "Criminal Minds", in which US profilers create profiles based on the perpetrator's psyche and use geographical data to track him down. Even though there are fortunately not too many serial killers up to mischief in Austria, the scenes are not as unrealistic as you might think at first.

When acid burglars struck in Vienna in 2022 and 2023, the investigators were hot on the gang's heels.

(Bild: Stefan Steinkogler)

Investigators from a wide range of professions
In addition to criminal psychology, Department 4 of the Federal Criminal Police Office (Crime Analysis) in Vienna has also had what is known as Office 4.5 since 2017. Seven investigators from a wide variety of fields, such as the police, psychology, history, cartography and even the postal service, pore over the questions that their police colleagues and criminologists deal with on the street every day.

For example: Where are burglaries, possible gang crimes or even robberies increasing? Are there other similar acts that could be part of a series of crimes? Do certain crimes occur more frequently in certain regions of the country?

In the future, AI can also be helpful in automatically recognizing series by comparing similar parameters and identifying crime hotspots at an early stage.

Paul Marouschek, stv. Direktor des Bundeskriminalamtes

Crime atlas on every police officer's cell phone
In order to answer these questions, the Crime Atlas was launched at the beginning of 2022. It is a simple app that is available to every uniformed officer around the clock. Regardless of whether a handbag is stolen somewhere in Austria or someone is injured with a knife - the data is fed directly into the app's system via the police inspectorates.

The investigators from Office 4.5 proudly accepted the award in the USA on Wednesday.

(Bild: Bundeskriminalamt)

Car burglars in Donaustadt probably serial offenders
When the "Krone" visited Büro 4.5, the app showed around 52 car break-ins within one day in Vienna's Donaustadt district. As almost all of them occurred on the same street, the experts assume that there is a suspected series. Another example: when an arsonist kept the police on their toes, the department managed to reconstruct the suspect's route to work using geographical clues. Days later, they were able to convict him using cameras.

Austria is a world leader in geoprofiling
The successful work of Bureau 4.5 has now been recognized with a special award. The team from the Federal Criminal Police Office accepted the international "Gis Award" in San Diego, California, on Wednesday evening (local time). It beat off all competition from offices and authorities worldwide. Proof that Austria is one of the absolute world leaders in geographical profiling.