{"id":766362,"date":"2025-08-05T05:30:43","date_gmt":"2025-08-05T12:30:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/?post_type=blog&#038;p=766362"},"modified":"2025-08-11T13:47:38","modified_gmt":"2025-08-11T20:47:38","slug":"how-seattle-police-transformed-event-security","status":"publish","type":"blog","link":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/blog\/how-seattle-police-transformed-event-security","title":{"rendered":"Behind Seattle&#8217;s Event Security: Mapping Threats and Measuring Success"},"author":671,"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":[10862],"tags":[],"industry":[],"esri-blog-category":[478402],"esri_blog_department":[478242],"class_list":["post-766362","blog","type-blog","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-esri","esri-blog-category-event-management","esri_blog_department-public-safety"],"acf":{"video_source":"","video_start":"","video_stop":"","short_description":"GIS transforms Seattle's event planning from paper maps with Post-it notes to real-time digital coordination.","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":"Seattle Police Department's GIS transformation survived budget cuts and staff turnover to emerge stronger, evolving from paper maps to real-time digital systems for event security now powering everything from parades to World Cup 2026 matches.\r\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><strong>Key Takeaways<\/strong><\/p>\r\n\r\n<ul>\r\n \t<li>Seattle Police Department created a single collaborative platform where fire, police, and transportation staff integrate information during events.<\/li>\r\n \t<li>Seattle transformed event planning from months-long paper processes to 30-minute digital sessions with quick updates.<\/li>\r\n \t<li>Seattle, Vancouver, and Santa Clara share fan intelligence as major events move between cities on the arena concert circuit.<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>","snippet":""},{"acf_fc_layout":"content","content":"<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Seattle Police Department's (SPD) special event planners review past event plans and outcomes from major sporting events, concerts, festivals, and parades. Rather than analyzing elements on the field or the stage, these law enforcement specialists examine crowd flows, officer deployments, and response to incidents.<\/p>\r\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">SPD measures success by the absence of serious incidents. In public safety operations, there is no standard playbook\u2014just experience, comprehensive contingency planning, and real-time situational awareness that enables repositioning to address incidents or threats.<\/p>\r\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cThere's no formula,\u201d said Officer Pablo Lee, SPD's veteran event planner who returned to the Seattle Police Operations Center (SPOC) after a stint in traffic safety. \u201cThe standard is that no one dies at the end of the day.\u201d It's a sobering reminder that law enforcement is measured by what doesn't happen\u2014success equals disasters averted, violence prevented, and crowds that disperse safely into the night.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<h3 style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><strong>GIS Technology Becomes Central to Event Planning<\/strong><\/h3>\r\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">When Pablo Lee left special events planning in 2017, the department\u2019s geographic information system (GIS) technology capabilities for event planning were discontinued. Budget cuts, staff turnover, and the changing agency priorities meant that sophisticated planning tools were replaced by analog methods. \u201cWhen I got back to SPOC, I asked where they kept event plans and I learned they didn\u2019t know that they existed,\u201d he recalls. The institutional knowledge had vanished, but technology had evolved dramatically during his absence.<\/p>\r\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Gone was the systematic three-phase approach with GIS that had made SPOC's event management so effective. Pablo Lee and his team had developed a workflow that treated each event as having distinct phases: pre-event planning (where GIS tools help determine staffing needs, barrier placement, and resource allocation), real-time operations (where analysts continuously update maps with live intelligence while commanders access dashboards on their mobile devices), and postevent after-action analysis (where time-enabled data becomes the foundation for future planning and legal documentation). \u201cWe have a preplan tool; an operational tool; and then postoperational, which is the after action,\u201d Pablo Lee explained. This integrated approach means GIS isn\u2019t just a mapping exercise\u2014it forms the backbone of how SPD approaches event security, from conception through completion, with each phase building on the previous one to create an ever-improving cycle of public safety intelligence.<\/p>\r\nThe contrast between old and new methods is stark. The SPOC captain previously used a printed map of the stadium with Post-it notes representing officer deployments\u2014lose a Post-it note, lose five officers' worth of coverage. Today, that same captain simply says, \u201cBring up your map,\u201d and the whole operational picture shows up on-screen. It has every position recorded and every decision saved, and every contingency plan can be accessed with a few clicks."},{"acf_fc_layout":"gallery","gallery_images":[766442,766392,766542]},{"acf_fc_layout":"content","content":"<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">When commanders question Pablo Lee\u2019s staffing requests, GIS provides evidence to back up expensive decisions. \u201cI show that we need eight people at an intersection, and the commander will ask why because it\u2019s only a four-lane road,\u201d Pablo Lee said. But a click on the spot reveals the true complexity: What appears to be a simple four-way intersection is actually five lanes flowing in four directions with multiple turn lanes. \u201cAnd then they look at it and they get it.\u201d<\/p>\r\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Seattle\u2019s special events team now operate as a coordinated unit, with multiple specialists managing different aspects. Rita Lee, enterprise GIS data supervisor, monitors activities during events. Leah Saunders, senior data analyst, maintains the infrastructure that keeps data flowing between city GIS environments. Saunders also creates the mapping layers, applications, and dashboards.<\/p>\r\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">GIS helps city departments work together. The fire department's staff can flag their access needs, transportation officials can mark critical routes, and commanders can see plans and posts and understand why certain decisions were made.<\/p>\r\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Seattle\u2019s dense urban landscape\u2014squeezed between Puget Sound and Lake Washington with Interstate 5 on one side and water on the other\u2014forms a natural funnel that can trap hundreds of thousands of event attendees alongside regular commuters, cruise ship passengers, and freight traffic bound for the Port of Seattle. Add two stadiums surrounded by businesses, railroad tracks, and highway on-ramps, and you have what Pablo Lee calls a perfect storm of logistical nightmares.<\/p>\r\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">To deal with this complexity, GIS tools calculate capacity limits and resource requirements. SPD staff can determine traffic barrier needs for street closures or and officer deployments along parade routes.<\/p>\r\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">For this summer\u2019s Torchlight Parade, featuring an entirely new route along Seattle\u2019s revitalized waterfront, the special events team accomplished in 30 minutes what historically required months of meetings. \u201cWe got the whole route staffed; we knew the traffic plan; we figured out where to put 120 officers; and then within a matter of 30 minutes, we had it done,\u201d Pablo Lee said, marveling at the transformation from dial-up to broadband speeds in public safety planning.<\/p>"},{"acf_fc_layout":"gallery","gallery_images":[766402,766422,766432,766462]},{"acf_fc_layout":"content","content":"<h3 style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><strong>Seattle Police Must Navigate Surveillance Restrictions<\/strong><\/h3>\r\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">While other police departments leverage aerial drones and extensive camera networks for event security, Seattle operates under an ordinance that prevents this level of monitoring of activity.<\/p>\r\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This technological constraint forces SPD to rely even more heavily on its GIS platform and observations from personnel in the field.<\/p>\r\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">During events, the system transforms into a situational awareness tool. When crowds began flowing from Cal Anderson Park to downtown during recent protests, Rita Lee used GIS tools to map the parade route in real time, including the crowd size estimation tool that Saunders built to interactively calculate the number of people. News reports later confirmed approximately 70,000 attendees, validating the system\u2019s accuracy.<\/p>\r\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Commanders can view live 911 calls, vehicle locations, available traffic camera feeds, and event-specific incidents. This real-time intelligence recently helped when the city faced questions about staffing decisions during a complex multi-event day. Within hours, the GIS team produced visual documentation showing exactly which intersections were covered and when, transforming a call for accountability into a data-driven justification that made sense. The where and why questions were answered by the GIS maps.<\/p>\r\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The system makes a record of every decision, timeline, and resource used. It creates an authoritative operational record that ensures safe events and promotes transparency. It also helps special events staff plan the next event, knowing what worked and where there were gaps.<\/p>"},{"acf_fc_layout":"image","image":766412,"image_position":"right","orientation":"horizontal","hyperlink":""},{"acf_fc_layout":"content","content":"<h3 style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><strong>World Cup Benefits from Regional Collaboration<\/strong><\/h3>\r\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The stakes are particularly high for World Cup 2026\u00a0events, given the documented history of crowd management challenges at international soccer tournaments. Unlike typical American sporting events, international soccer can involve organized supporter groups with histories of confrontation and property damage. Security planning must account for the potential of coordinated violence between rival fan bases, a pattern that has occurred at previous World Cup events globally.<\/p>\r\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The cities of Vancouver, British Columbia; Seattle, Washington; and Santa Clara, California; plan on sharing information about matches on the West Coast to help keep all fans safe for the World Cup.<\/p>\r\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cThe three of us are in very close talks of trying to figure out how we can solve logistical problems,\u201d Pablo Lee said. \u201cIf we\u2019re going to get the next match with the team that played in Vancouver or Santa Clara, then we\u2019ll know what we can expect from the fans.\u201d<\/p>\r\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">With Seattle hosting six matches over three weeks, an estimated 750,000 people will visit the city, requiring comprehensive deployment of the event team\u2019s systems. The operational complexity exceeds any previous sporting event or concert the city has managed. Pablo Lee notes particular concerns about elimination matches, where disappointed fans may be more likely to engage in destructive behavior when their teams are knocked out of competition.<\/p>\r\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Seattle\u2019s GIS-enhanced approach offers a model for cities facing similar challenges. As Pablo Lee puts it, \u201cI always knew we had an answer with GIS. It was just how to work it to our advantage.\u201d<\/p>\r\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Vancouver Police Department has already requested demonstrations of Seattle\u2019s system, while Santa Clara is also adopting a similar GIS-centric approach to event security.<\/p>\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Learn more about how <a href=\"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/en-us\/industries\/public-safety\/real-time-situational-awareness\">real-time GIS and situational awareness guide special event safety<\/a>.<\/p>"},{"acf_fc_layout":"sidebar","layout":"standard","image_reference":null,"image_reference_figure":"","spotlight_image":null,"section_title":"","spotlight_name":"","position":"Center","content":"<h2 style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><strong>The Evolution from Custom Workarounds to Out-of-the-Box Solutions<\/strong><\/h2>\r\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">When Leah Saunders first started working with Seattle Police Department years ago, everything required custom development. The department was pushing what was possible with ArcGIS Online, needing more robust capabilities to integrate secure police data.<\/p>\r\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The breakthrough came when Saunders implemented ArcGIS Enterprise for SPD a year before Pablo Lee\u2019s departure in 2017. \u201cThat was a game changer, but then he was kind of on his way out the door,\u201d she explains. The timing meant the department never fully utilized the system\u2019s capabilities until Pablo Lee\u2019s recent return.<\/p>\r\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Now, the contrast is dramatic. Where Saunders once spent countless hours building custom tools, she can leverage out-of-the-box functionality with ArcGIS Arcade scripting and prebuilt widgets. She commented on how the crowd estimation tool that once required extensive custom development is now a widget that works well.<\/p>\r\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The department\u2019s templates exemplify this ease-of-use evolution. Rita Lee, who provisions day-of-event details, says she can now \u201copen up the template and enter the new event name, create some layers quickly within a couple of minutes, and we can just have it ready to go\u201d for spontaneous events like political protests. What once required days of preparation now happens in minutes.<\/p>\r\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This shift from custom everything to enterprise-ready solutions has democratized GIS within SPD, allowing officers to edit events maps directly rather than relying on others.<\/p>","snippet":""}],"references":null},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v25.9 (Yoast SEO v25.9) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>The Maps Behind Seattle&#039;s Event Security<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"GIS transforms Seattle&#039;s event planning from paper maps with Post-it notes to real-time digital coordination.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/blog\/how-seattle-police-transformed-event-security\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta 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