About ECRI

Environmental Criminology Research Inc. (ECRI) develops and supplies software for advanced crime analysis to police, military and security customers. The company is based in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.

ECRI’s Rigel™ professional geographic profiling system was first introduced in 1997 with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP), then with the National Crime and Operations Faculty (NCOF) in the UK in 1999 (now part of the National Crime Agency, NCA), and with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) in the United States in 2004. ECRI’s products are now used for advanced crime and intelligence analysis by national, regional and local police agencies throughout the world, in applications from ranging from serial murder investigation to counter-terrorism to reducing local property crime.

ECRI’s patented geographic profiling technology is based on the pioneering work of Dr. Kim Rossmo, who developed the concept of geographic profiling as part of his doctoral research in criminology at Simon Fraser University in the early 1990s while simultaneously serving as a police officer on the Vancouver force. From 1996 – 2000 he served as the Detective Inspector in charge of a special Geographic Profiling Unit at the Vancouver Police Department which trained geographic profilers from other international police agencies. He is now a research professor at Texas State University, heading the university’s Center for Geospatial Intelligence and Investigation. Dr. Rossmo was one of the founders of ECRI, and he has served as ECRI’s Chief Scientist and Chairman of the Board since inception.

History

1986 – Geographic profiling first conceived by Kim Rossmo.
1990 – First operational geographic profile produced for the Vancouver Police Department (VPD).
1994 – Environmental Criminology Research Inc. (ECRI) company founded.
1995 – VPD establishes the world’s first dedicated Geographic Profiling Section.
1996 – ECRI releases prototype geographic profiling software “Orion”.
1997 – Investigators from international police forces begin formal geographic profiling understudy training at the VPD.
1997 – First version of Rigel geographic profiling software ships to the VPD, RCMP and Ontario Provincial Police.
2000 – UK NCOF offers the first geographic profiling services in Europe using Rigel software
2001 – National Law Enforcement and Corrections Technology Center (NLECTC-SE) offers first geographic profiling analyst (GPA) training program for property crime.
2002 – ECRI releases Rigel Analyst for property crime.
2004 – ATF offers the first geographic profiling services at the federal level in the USA using Rigel software.
2005 – The Committee for GPA Training and Certification (CGPATC) is formed with the participation of ECRI to administer the GPA program and issue GPA certification.
2007 – First military version of the Rigel geographic profiling software released.
2012 – First Chinese-language edition of Rigel installed in China.
2013 – Online training offered by ECRI and the CGPATC
2021 – 35 year anniversary of ECRI founding