Google Maps Can Track Meth Labs

Mapping technology like that behind Google Maps has been a game changer. It’s great when it comes to getting you where you’re going, but that’s not all it’s good for. Experts are finding that they can use the data this field produces along with geospatial predictive analytics, cutting-edge algorithms, and data analysis techniques to do everything from predicting terrorist activity to preventing auto theft.

Geospatial predictive analytics (yes, the technology is a mouthful) uses data points and specialized software to turn maps into sophisticated analysis tools. While the average joe uses it in the form of a GPS or to get driving directions online, the pros are finding innovative new uses for this detailed data.

A professor at Kansas State University has developed a novel method of using this mapping technology to find meth labs. In the 2009 book Geography and Drug Addiction, Max Lu and partner Jessica Burnum applied spatial data analysis tools to compiled information on the informal meth industry in Colorado Springs and rural Kansas. Burnum and Lu examined data collected from 2002 to 2005 on seized meth lab equipment and where rogue chemists dumped the toxic by-products of methamphetamine manufacture. Using the data, the pair were able to successfully prove meth manufacture was creeping slowly through more and more middle-class neighborhoods in Colorado Springs. Map data analyzed over time successfully demonstrated the spread of meth labs throughout a metropolitan area—and even predicted where they would pop up next.

This is likely just the beginning of how mapping technology will be used in the ongoing war on drugs.

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