In some communities, inequitable policing practices have eroded public trust and challenged the legitimacy of local law enforcement agencies. As a result, many seek new ways to improve their relationship with the communities they serve. The larger reform efforts are helping law enforcement agencies improve transparency and demonstrate accountable police policies. At the same time, agencies are also engaging the community more deeply and using their feedback to drive policing priorities and enforcement policies.
The Police Transparency solution can be used by law enforcement agencies to deliver a set of capabilities that help share information openly with the public, promote your agency’s work, demonstrate accountability when force is used, illustrate workforce recruiting reflects the diversity of the community and engage the public to improve policing services. The solution is typically implemented by agencies that want to increase transparency, grow public trust and improve relationships with the communities they serve.
July 2025 update
On July 2nd, 2025, we released a new version of the Police Transparency solution. Version 3.0 of the solution includes simplified app and website styling to make it easier to align with your agency branding, new mobile-friendly apps built in ArcGIS Dashboards and ArcGIS Experience Builder, and public-facing layers for calls for service, beat, district, and division boundary layers to expand open data sharing efforts.
Promote your agency’s work
The Police Transparency solution leverages an ArcGIS Hub site to promote transparency efforts. The site includes a responsive and accessible website that serves as a destination for key focus areas, for example, community engagement, workforce diversity, crime stats, and use of force.
Engage the community
To deliver the equitable, high quality service required to improve public trust and legitimacy, law enforcement agencies have an obligation to find new ways to understand and respond to community needs. Effective community engagement strategies leverage technology to enable residents and stakeholders to be heard, get involved, and collaborate with police and fellow citizens for solutions to community problems.
A Community Engagement page helps law enforcement agencies engage their communities with apps to help the public find and connect the community policing officer in their neighborhood, provide feedback on an interaction with an officer or police employee, capture feedback on public perceptions of safety and police performance, and, with Hub Premium, discover and sign-up for community policing events.
Illustrate workforce diversity
Many law enforcement agencies are striving to recruit a diverse workforce that reflects the community it serves. Transparent reporting of workforce demography and recruitment initiatives along with monitoring tools for community members helps law enforcement agencies maintain accountability and demonstrate they are building a representative workforce.
A Personnel page includes a Police Personnel Dashboard can used by the public to understand the racial, ethnic, and gender diversity of their police force, access to personnel demographic data, and space to highlight resources and initiatives related to recruitment and workforce diversity.
Share crime conditions
Crime prevention is an essential function every law enforcement agency provides to their community. Transparent sharing of data on crime and calls for service activity enables agencies to provide evidence to support their prevention and enforcement priorities as well as to help community members improve awareness of crime conditions and act to protect themselves.
The Police Transparency solution includes a Maps & Stats page with a series of apps intended to help the public improve their understanding of crime conditions. A Year-to-date Crime Statistics dashboard helps the public understand statistical trends across major crime categories, a Community Crime Explorer app to help the public explore crime conditions in their area of interest, and a Community Calls For Service Explorer app to help the public explore call for service activity in their neighborhood. Together these apps help community members answer their own questions about crime and safety conditions, and can help your agency cut down on time-consuming requests for information.
Understand use of force
To demonstrate a commitment to transparent community oversight, law enforcement agencies are increasingly sharing information about use of force with the general public. Agencies can educate community members to holistically understand the topic of use of force, how frequently force is used, the practices and policies that govern its’ application, and its impacts upon neighborhoods and community members.
A Use Of Force page includes a summary dashboard to help explain why and how often law enforcement agencies use force, apps to help the public explore the characteristics of subjects and officers involved, and content placeholders to share your agency’s use of force policies, review process, or other resources.
A system for improving community safety
Police Transparency is part of a larger ArcGIS system for law enforcement agencies, including the Daily Activity Dashboard, Crime Reduction Statistics, and Crime Problem Management solutions. These solutions can be used in tandem to enable place-based capabilities for organizations of all sizes and GIS maturity. The solutions can be deployed individually, all at once, or in any combination to support your unique needs.
Learn more
For more information about the Police Transparency solution, check out the following resources:
- Learn how to deploy, configure, and use the solution.
- View a demo video.
- Learn more about ArcGIS Solutions.
- Chat with us on Esri Community.
Article Discussion: