CALL COMES IN THE What You Will Need • ArcGIS Desktop 9.3 (ArcView, ArcEditor, or ArcInfo) • Sample dataset downloaded from ArcUser Online Quickly and accurately map emergency incidents with a composite address locator By Mike Price, Entrada, San Juan, Inc. Address geocoding is an essential public safety skill. However, officers need to understand the benefits, limitations, and complexities of systematic address locators. To quickly and accurately map incident locations, a Public Safety Access Point (PSAP) relies on computer-aided dispatch (CAD) software and georeferencing datasets to match the caller’s address to a point on the map. At the dispatch center, a trained operator must capture, interpret, record, and map as much incident information as possible. After determining the incident’s location, the operator identifies the needed and available resources and passes as much information as possible to responding units. These tasks must be accomplished as quickly as possible—typically 60 seconds or less. Once mapped, the CAD system matches the closest available emergency resources with the call type and sends out automated tones, coupled with digital information and voice instructions. Consis46 ArcUser Spring 2010 tent, complete, and current addressing datasets are essential to this process. This exercise shows how to produce addressing datasets by creating geocoding services or address locators for three datasets that will place a location on a map with a high degree of accuracy. Rather than geocoding a single incident, this exercise processes several thousand incident points captured during a single year in a major metropolitan area. Standardizing addresses and using a progressive composite address locator will achieve an extremely high success rate on the very first pass. This exercise applies the same sequential logic that is used by response centers around the world. The data for this exercise was created for a textbook and tutorial series on performing emergency services mapping. It is based on data from actual jurisdictions and represents field conditions but has been modified to protect sensitive information. The exercise is organized into five tasks. Task 1: Understanding Addressing Data Obtain and analyze geocoding reference data. Review incident data format(s). Task 2: Creating Individual Address Locators Design and build stand-alone address locators for each reference dataset. Task 3: Building a Composite Address Locator Combine all address locators in hierarchical order in a composite address locator. Task 4: Geocoding Incidents In ArcMap, geocode nearly 7,000 emergency incidents, updating unmatched addresses and resolving ties. Task 5: Adding Detailed Information about Incidents Join incident date and type information to all geocoded points to display fires and explosions, Hazmat incidents, emergency medical services (EMS) responses, and service calls. Getting Started To get started, go to the ArcUser Online and download Lakewood.zip. Store this file near a root directory and extract the data, respecting directory structure. Start ArcMap, navigate to the new Lakewood folder, and open Lakewood1. Right-click in an open toolbar area and select the Geocoding toolbar. Move it next to the other open toolbars and inspect its buttons. The Address Locator Manager and Geocode Addresses buttons are active. Two other tools, Location Inspector and Review/Rematch Addresses, are inactive. www.esri.com