ECRI Home : News & Events : Press Releases

Environmental Criminology Research Inc. (ECRI) completes installation of RIGEL geographic profiling system for the Limburg Zuid Regional Police in The Netherlands.

Environmental Criminology Research Inc. (ECRI) announced the acquisition of one of their RIGEL geographic profiling systems by the Limburg Zuid Police force in Heerlen, The Netherlands.

The Limburg Police are the fourth major European police agency to establish a geographic profiling section. The German Bundeskriminalamt (BKA), the UK's National Crime and Operations Faculty (NCOF) and the South Wales Police currently have RIGEL systems. The NCOF have created a European training center for geographic profiling and will be training the Limburg profilers.

The Limburg police, in conjunction with regional forces in Zeeland, Midden and West Brabant, Brabant Noord, Brabant Zuid Oost and Limburg Noord, will be using their RIGEL system to support serious crime investigations ( murder, rape, sexual assault, abduction, bombing and anti-terrorism ) for the southern regions of The Netherlands.

Albert Smeets, head of Crime Analysis for Limburg Zuid, said: "Although our primary focus will be crime in our region, the removal of borders in Europe now enables criminals to live in one country, travel through another and operate in a third. As we border with Belgium and Germany, we are looking to geographic profiling to help not only in local investigations but in regional cases in the Benelux region as well."

"The Limburg Police have been following the successes of the other police agencies using geographic profiling, and have made the decision to implement their own geographic profiling centre in Heerlen," said Ian Laverty, president and CEO of ECRI. "We will look forward to the Limburg Police having similar success."

Geographic Profiling is an advanced crime analysis technique that identifies the most probable search areas for a serial offender’s residence based upon geographic crime site locations. It was originally developed at Simon Fraser University by Dr. Kim Rossmo. ECRI's RIGEL geographic profiling systems have been used in over 700 cases worldwide, frequently helping to reduce the time and effort to apprehend a serial offender, and resulting in fewer crimes and lower investigation costs. ECRI offers two versions: Trained Geographic Profilers use RIGEL ProfilerÔ in violent serial crime investigations (sexual assault, homicide, abduction, anti-terrorism), while Crime Analysts use RIGEL Analyst for their local non-violent serial crime investigations (Break and Enter, Auto theft, Arson).