Case Study - Better Policing through Analysis: Ogden Police Take Advantage of GIS in Real Time

Title:  Case Study - Better Policing through Analysis: Ogden Police Take Advantage of GIS in Real Time Crime Center

Author:  Jessica Williams

Date:  6/20/2013

            In the city of Ogden, Utah, the Ogden Police Department (OPD) is tasked with the suppression, detection and investigation of crime; however, they also wanted a way to identify areas where crimes might occur based on previous crime patterns and reports.  For over a decade now, the OPD had been using a combination of Esri GIS software, CAD, and collected data to track where crime was committed in the city.  They collected data from various other departments, but were only analyzing data on a monthly basis.  This analysis was given to the upper command to further analyze the information to determine needs.  All of the pieces need where in place; however they were not being used in an efficient manner.  To further enhance law enforcement capability throughout the force, the Real Time Crime Center (RTCC) was developed to bring data from all departments into one place, making it available for those analysts in the office, and providing a means for disseminating that analysis to those officers out on the streets, giving them real-time statistics on a daily basis.

            Microsoft Fusion Core Solution (FCS) was used to combine all the data from the various departmental sources, including local warrants, criminal history, jail data, property information, affidavits and more.  And, since FCS was developed in collaboration with Esri, the data stored is easily available to display using standard mapping sources.  With data combined in one place now, the analyst in the RTCC  have created automatic queries to run and can use the existing crime data, surveillance cameras, and vehicle tracking data in conjunction with Esri ArcMap to identify crime hot spots.  By identifying these hot spots, the OPD can focus on where to station patrol cars and increase police presence in the higher crime areas.  Hot spots may vary depending on the time day and through the use of the automatic queries, these changing hot spots can be identified in an efficient manner.

            In conclusion, the Ogden Police Department was able to take information previously collected and analyzed on a monthly basis and through the use of Esri software and servers, ArcGIS online, Microsoft Fusion Core Solution and Microsoft SharePoint servers, disseminate analyzed, real time data and information to the decision makers in the office and to the officers in the field.  Real time data dissemination allows the OPD to make informed decisions when it comes to protecting its citizens.