{"id":469572,"date":"2021-10-26T06:53:52","date_gmt":"2021-10-26T13:53:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/?post_type=blog&#038;p=469572"},"modified":"2022-04-03T19:45:21","modified_gmt":"2022-04-04T02:45:21","slug":"st-louis-police-share-maps-apps-dashboards","status":"publish","type":"blog","link":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/blog\/st-louis-police-share-maps-apps-dashboards","title":{"rendered":"St. Louis Police Share Maps, Apps and Dashboards to Improve Public Safety"},"author":5242,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"sync_status":"","episode_type":"","audio_file":"","transcript_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","castos_file_data":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","itunes_episode_number":"","itunes_title":"","itunes_season_number":"","itunes_episode_type":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[991,211],"tags":[339372,311,160532,1691],"industry":[],"esri-blog-category":[478532],"esri_blog_department":[478242],"class_list":["post-469572","blog","type-blog","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-map-modernization","category-public-safety","tag-crime","tag-data-driven","tag-police","tag-situational-awareness","esri-blog-category-analytics","esri_blog_department-public-safety"],"acf":{"video_source":"","video_start":"","video_stop":"","short_description":"The St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department has evolved from mapping crime to delivering maps, apps, and dashboards to the whole force.","pdf":{"host_remotely":false,"file":"","file_url":""},"flexible_content":[{"acf_fc_layout":"sidebar","layout":"standard","image_reference":null,"image_reference_figure":"","spotlight_image":null,"section_title":"","spotlight_name":"","position":"Right","content":"<div><span class=\"normaltextrun\">Crime analysts at the <\/span>St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department have gone from creating maps on demand to delivering tools that allow anyone to make their own maps<span class=\"normaltextrun\">.<\/span><\/div>\r\n<div>\r\n\r\nKey Takeaways\r\n<ul>\r\n \t<li>St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department deploys maps and apps across the force.<\/li>\r\n \t<li>GIS analysis matches police presence to areas with high crime concentration.<\/li>\r\n \t<li>Officers use dashboards to adjust to shifts in crime during and after the pandemic.<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n<\/div>","snippet":""},{"acf_fc_layout":"content","content":"At times, the crimes are so brazen, so out in the open.\r\n\r\n\u201cThey just don\u2019t care,\u201d said Captain Christi Marks, a commander with the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department. \u201cThey don\u2019t seem afraid of getting caught or of the consequences.\u201d\r\n\r\nIn response to what\u2019s now a near daily occurrence of bold retail crimes in St. Louis, Marks and her team have taken a geographic approach\u2014using maps and dashboards to locate crime patterns and allocate resources where they are needed most.\r\n<h3><strong>Mapping Crime to Find Trends and Protect Residents<\/strong><\/h3>\r\nMarks has long used maps to understand crime trends in the city, beginning with a paper map and different colored pushpins she would use to mark each crime by category. This was in the early 2000s when Marks was a public affairs officer for the downtown district.\r\n\r\n\u201cAs you can imagine, by the end of the year that map had thousands of holes in it,\u201d she said. \u201cI told my captain, \u2018There has to be a better way.\u2019\u201d After investigating crime analysis and visualization tools, she took geographic information system (GIS) training to compile data and make digital maps."},{"acf_fc_layout":"gallery","gallery_images":[469642,469652]},{"acf_fc_layout":"content","content":"\u201cI remember how proud I was when I bound up all these crime maps in booklets,\u201d Marks said. \u201cOther captains were saying, \u2018Where did you get that?\u2019\u201d\r\n\r\nTwenty years later, and since 2007, the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department has dedicated crime analysts who use GIS daily to inform patrol plans, aid investigations, and assist with resource allocations. The agency expanded access to GIS at the enterprise scale, giving the force of 2,000 people access to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/en-us\/location-intelligence\">location intelligence<\/a>.\r\n\r\nEmily Blackburn, the Crime Analysis Unit manager, worked with crime and intelligence analyst Lindsay Maier to create interactive data dashboards with built-in filters anyone on the force can use to focus on specific locations or trends.\r\n\r\nBlackburn understands what other <a href=\"https:\/\/www.city-journal.org\/three-facts-about-crime\">crime analysts and researchers have learned<\/a>: crime is highly concentrated, with 5 percent of the locations in a city accounting for 50 percent of that city\u2019s crime. They also know that repeat offenders commit the most crime. These patterns inform decisions to increase police presence where it\u2019s needed most."},{"acf_fc_layout":"image","image":469612,"image_position":"center","orientation":"horizontal","hyperlink":""},{"acf_fc_layout":"content","content":"One of the GIS tools Blackburn and her team created is an application that combines data such as details from field interviews about crimes and information about the people who may have been involved. Officers can search the app when working to track down suspects and solve open investigations.\r\n\r\n\u201cWe can look up any suspect\u2019s street name in St. Louis, and you can use that or any alias in the app to get all frequented locations,\u201d Blackburn said. \u201cIt really creates a good picture of a suspect, where they might be, and if they might be the person they\u2019re looking for.\u201d\r\n\r\nAnother app they created for police commanders shows a side-by-side map of crimes and police activity. \u201cNow they can really see almost in real-time if officers are where the crime is,\u201d Blackburn said."},{"acf_fc_layout":"quote","image":469732,"text":"When I shared the dashboards, everybody said, \u2018Oh, this is like the COVID-19 dashboard\u2019 and I said, 'Yes, except for crime.\u2019","author_name":"Emily Blackburn","author_profession_organization":"Crime Analysis Unit manager, SLMPD"},{"acf_fc_layout":"content","content":"<h3><strong>Data-Driven Public Safety During the Pandemic and Beyond<\/strong><\/h3>\r\nThe pandemic brought new challenges to the crime analysis team, but also new opportunities to socialize their work and offer support for COVID-related shifts in crime patterns. They also used the time to improve their data consolidation and automation.\r\n\r\n\u201cIt gave us back our commute time, so we had time to think creatively and do more with our data,\u201d Blackburn said. \u201cWe also pulled back from police-initiated activity until we learned how to manage COVID-19.\u201d The shift gave the department time to focus on taking GIS to every officer.\r\n\r\nThe rising popularity of public health dashboards increased awareness and adoption for police officers. Blackburn explained: \u201cWhen I shared the dashboards, everybody said, \u2018Oh, this is like the COVID-19 dashboard\u2019 and I said, \u201cYes, except for crime.\u2019\u201d"},{"acf_fc_layout":"gallery","gallery_images":[469602,469692,469682,469672]},{"acf_fc_layout":"content","content":"The police dashboards quickly oriented officers on how COVID-19 was impacting the areas they patrol. Maps show, for example, the number and locations of domestic violence incidents as well as suspicious deaths and overdoses\u2014all of which became even more concerning during the pandemic.\r\n\r\n\u201cI get on the dashboards every morning for the daily stand-up meeting with all the commanders, captains, majors, and colonels\u2014Monday through Saturday,\u201d Marks said. \u201cI can never be blindsided because every single incident that's reported pops up, and it also tells me what's up or down. I know exactly where everything happened, and I can click on just the dot to learn more.\u201d\r\n\r\nNow that many US cities are recovering from the pandemic, Marks hopes the added awareness from GIS apps and dashboards will keep residents safe and help return her city to vitality.\r\n\r\n\u201cYou can go downtown on a night where there's a baseball game, and you'll see thousands and thousands of people,\u201d Marks said. \u201cAnd when I see that, it makes me so proud, because that's my city and that's what I want to see. I want to see the commerce. I want to see people coming to downtown. I want a thriving city.\u201d\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\nLearn how <a href=\"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/en-us\/landing-page\/corporate-programs\/2020\/saas-gis-for-local-government\/initiatives\/law-enforcement?gclid=Cj0KCQjwqp-LBhDQARIsAO0a6aIuqEVnFRiAz_VDQDAwkdb5OU4bzKkD71I2hhT5--V_DbCt5LEhhmoaAkb-EALw_wcB&amp;adumkts=integrated_mktg&amp;aduse=local_state&amp;aduc=advertising&amp;adum=ppc&amp;aduSF=google&amp;utm_Source=advertising&amp;aduca=dg_saas_for_local_government&amp;aduco=olp_insight_law&amp;adut=ppcbrand_law&amp;adupt=lead_gen&amp;sf_id=7015x000000SPc5AAG&amp;ef_id=Cj0KCQjwqp-LBhDQARIsAO0a6aIuqEVnFRiAz_VDQDAwkdb5OU4bzKkD71I2hhT5--V_DbCt5LEhhmoaAkb-EALw_wcB:G:s&amp;s_kwcid=AL!8948!3!534503322613!e!!g!!esri%20crime%20analysis&amp;_bk=esri%20crime%20analysis&amp;_bt=534503322613&amp;_bm=e&amp;_bn=g&amp;_bg=129868124784&amp;gclsrc=aw.ds\">law enforcement uses GIS to track and understand public safety incidents<\/a>."}],"references":null},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the 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