The fuzzy mode has identified a general location where there are multiple sub-locations in
which vehicle thefts occur.
In other words, the fuzzy mode allows the identification of small hot spot areas,
rather than exact locations. But, because all points within the user-defined search area are
counted, points are counted multiple times. Thus, any one location may not have a
sufficient number of incidents to be grouped in the ‘top 10' by itself, but, because it is close
to other locations that have incidents occurring, it may be elevated to the ‘top 10' due to its
adjacency to these other incident locations.
Still, the user must be careful in the analysis. By changing the search radius, the
number of incidents counted for any one location changes as well as it’s order in the
hierarchy. For example, when a quarter mile search radius was used, all top locations
occurred within a short distance of each other (not shown).