Hartford, Connecticut, Implements Enterprise GIS

19 July 2007, 10:42am

July 19, 2007 - Redlands, California-The City of Hartford Police Department now uses ArcGIS software as an enterprise geographic information system (GIS) platform supporting intelligence-led policing efforts. The department also uses CrimeView crime analysis software from the Omega Group. Since implementing GIS, the department has achieved lower crime rates in a number of areas.

"Through the implementation of GIS technology and the analysis tools made available to our officers, the department has been able to
effectively change, in a positive manner, the department's community policing initiatives at the neighborhood level," states Daryl K.
Roberts, chief of police. "GIS has provided an invaluable means for better crime analysis, decision making, and communication, which has
brought great success to the department."

The Hartford Police Department has 430 sworn officers and handles nearly 225 part one crimes per week. Part one crimes are more serious offenses such as robbery, aggravated assault, burglary, and auto theft. The agency also receives approximately 350,000 calls for service annually. The City of Hartford is 18 square miles with a population of 124,300 that swells to 400,000 during the daytime. It has more than 19,000 parcels and 44,500 addresses.

The department made the decision to implement GIS after recognizing the benefits of crime mapping as a tool for crime analysis. The agency was awarded a Community-Oriented Policing Services (COPS) grant from the United States Department of Justice, which provided the funding necessary to purchase the required hardware and software. ESRI business partners Fuss & O'Neill and the Omega Group were contracted to build and assist in the implementation of an enterprise GIS solution.

To take advantage of the spatial and analytical components of GIS, the Hartford Police Department sought to build an enterprise system that would interface with the department's computer-aided dispatch (CAD) and records management system (RMS) databases, with the cadastral and planimetric layers maintained at the municipal level. Also, the system had to be reliable, require minimal daily oversight, and make database updates automatically, and above all, the application needed a user interface that was simple to use.

The department's enterprise system consists of ESRI's ArcView, ArcEditor, ArcSDE, ArcIMS, and ArcGIS Spatial Analyst. ArcGIS helps with
crime analysis, the city's new neighborhood policing plan, Computer Statistics (COMPSTAT), resource allocation, emergency event analysis,
and more.

GIS has played a significant role in the mapping and analysis of National Integrated Ballistic Information Network (NIBIN) hits supplied by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms. The department has worked closely with the State of Connecticut Forensic Science Laboratory in cases involving shootings to map the link between gun-related
incidents and the bullet casings found at different crime scenes. They were able to link a particular gun to a crime scene that ultimately facilitated the arrest of the responsible parties found in possession of these guns. These maps have been used as evidence in court.

The department has realized tremendous benefits from its GIS efforts including significant reductions in burglaries, auto thefts, and street robberies. The City of Hartford applied for the extremely competitive Universal Police Hiring Grant issued by the U.S. Department of Justice and clinched the award by using a "hot spot" map of gun violence to clearly show the need for additional police resources within specific neighborhoods. The city received funding for 20 additional police officers. The Hartford Police Department also received a Special Achievement in GIS Award at the 27th Annual ESRI International User Conference.

"The ESRI and Omega Group solution was selected because the applications provided the functionality desired," says Sergeant Andrew
Jaffee, information technology manager for the Hartford Police Department. Lieutenant William Schwarz, commander of the Crime Analysis
Division, states, "This software allows us to provide timely information regarding criminal incidents and easily identify crime patterns and trends. It also assists operational and administrative personnel in planning the deployment of resources for the suppression of criminal activities and aiding the investigative process to increase apprehensions."

About ESRI

Since 1969, ESRI has been giving customers around the world the power to think and plan geographically. The market eader in GIS, ESRI software is used in more than 300,000 organizations worldwide including each of
the 200 largest cities in the United States, most national governments, more than two-thirds of Fortune 500 companies, and more than 7,000 colleges and universities. ESRI applications, running on more than one
million desktops and thousands of Web and enterprise servers, provide the backbone for the world's mapping and spatial analysis. ESRI is the only vendor that provides complete technical solutions for desktop, mobile, server, and Internet platforms. Visit www.esri.com.

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