Preface

My own interest in the area of geographic profiling stems from two sources. First, as a new police officer assigned to Vancouver’s Skid Road, I could not help but notice the relevance of environmental criminology, particularly the ideas of Professors Paul and Patricia Brantingham from Simon Fraser University. The street has its hot spots, patterns, and rhythms — drug dealers handle their markets; prostitutes work their favourite corners; even fleeing criminals follow predictable patterns.

Second, as a police veteran of 20 years, I find the reasons for most crimes, if seen from the perspective of the offender, are not difficult to understand. Serial violent crime, however, is on the extreme fringe of human behaviour, a ritual of violence that defies simple explanation. Comprehending these individuals and their actions, even if only in some small measure, was a daunting challenge.

The research and development of geographic profiling was thus undertaken in an effort to integrate the academic with the practical, the scholastic with the professional. I hoped that by combining science and strategy, experiment and experience, something useful would be produced for the worlds of both the ivory tower and the street.

© 2000 by CRC Press LLC

The Author

D. Kim Rossmo is the Detective Inspector in charge of the Vancouver Police Department’s Geographic Profiling Section. Over the course of his 20-year policing career he has worked assignments in organised crime intelligence, emergency response, patrol, crime prevention, and community liaison. He holds a Ph.D. in criminology and has researched and published in the areas of policing, offender profiling, and environmental criminology. He is an Adjunct Professor at Simon Fraser University, sits on the editorial board for the international journal Homicide Studies, and is a member of the American Society of Criminology.

Dr. Rossmo is the Vice President of the Canadian Association of Violent Crime Analysts, a member of the International Association of Chiefs of Police Investigative Operations Advisory Committee, and a former Executive Vice President of the Canadian Police Association. In 1998 he was made a Fellow of the Western Society of Criminology, and in 1999 accredited as one of British Columbia’s top innovators and granted an Outstanding Alumni of the Year Award from Simon Fraser University for his work in developing geographic profiling.

© 2000 by CRC Press LLC

His present duties include assisting police agencies in Canada, the U.S., Britain, and Europe, including the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and Scotland Yard, in cases of serial murder, rape, bombing, and arson. He has been recognized as an expert witness in the geography of crime and the hunting patterns of serial offenders. Dr. Rossmo is currently involved in several research, writing, and development projects.

© 2000 by CRC Press LLC

Acknowledgments

Like much research, this book is the product of many people in addition to the author. I would like to thank the following for their support and guidance during the research that led to the development of geographic profiling: Professor Paul Brantingham, Professor Patricia Brantingham, Professor John Lowman, and Professor Tom Calvert, Simon Fraser University; Professor John Yuille, University of British Columbia; and Professor Ronald Clarke, Rutgers University.

I would also like to acknowledge the encouragement and assistance of the following researchers and authors: Professor Eric Hickey, California State University; Professor Steven Egger, Sangamon State University; Professor James LeBeau, Southern Illinois University; Professor George Rengert, Temple University; Jonathan Alston, Simon Fraser University; Anne Davies, London Metropolitan Police; and Doctor Janet Jackson, The Netherlands Institute for the Study of Criminality and Law Enforcement.

As an investigative technique, geographic profiling owes a debt to the following: Chief Constable Ray Canuel, Chief Constable Bruce Chambers, Deputy Chief Constable Brian McGuinness, Deputy Chief Constable Ken Higgins, Inspector Ken Doern, Inspector John Eldridge, and Cheryllynne Drabinsky, Vancouver Police Department; Staff Sergeant Doug MacKayDunn, Vancouver Integrated Intelligence Unit; Assistant Commissioner Joop Plomp, Inspector Ron MacKay, Inspector Glenn Woods, Staff Sergeant Keith Davidson, and Corporal Scot Filer, Royal Canadian Mounted Police; Detective Inspector Kate Lines and Detective Sergeant Brad Moore, Ontario Provincial Police; Detective Chief Inspector Adrian Hogg and Detective Sergeant Neil Trainor, National Crime Faculty; Supervisory Special Agent James A. Wright, Supervisory Special Agent Gregg O. McCrary, and Dr. Roland Reboussin, Federal Bureau of Investigation; Sergeant John House, Royal Newfoundland Constabulary; Corporal Guy Pollock, Coordinated Law Enforcement Unit Intelligence Section; Lieutenant Debra Davidoski, Milwaukee Police Department; Corporal Steve Hess, Justice Institute of British Columbia; Diane Bell, British Columbia Federation of Police Officers; and all the police investigators who were willing to try geographic profiling during its early days.

© 2000 by CRC Press LLC

Supervisory Special Agent Judson Ray, Federal Bureau of Investigation, facilitated the initial data collection from the National Center for the Analysis of Violent Crime. Janice Campbell-Barnett, Kim Bufton, Rebecca Wall, Laurie Henderson, Rose Chow, Kevin Bonnycastle, Michelle Jenion, Dorothy Lott, and Kellie Smith all supplied invaluable research assistance. Jay Clarke, Michael Slade, Chief Superintendent Robert DeClercq, and Special X helped spread the word. And the students from both my Phenomenon of Serial Murder and Forensic Behavioural Science classes more than adequately demonstrated that learning occurs on both sides of the podium.

Rigel was made possible through the vision, business acumen, and programming expertise of Ian Laverty, David Demers, Barry Dalziel, Tim Lochner, Matt Naish, Brian Eng, and Lisa Shields, Environmental Criminology Research, Inc.; and Jennifer Thompson, Facet Decision Systems. Important development funding was provided by the National Research Council of Canada and the Simon Fraser University Industry Liaison Office.

I am indebted to Becky McEldowney and the professional team at CRC Press for making this book happen. Finally, a special thanks to my parents, family, and friends for their constant support and encouragement.

© 2000 by CRC Press LLC