Hamburg Police Modernizes Operations with Real-Time GIS

The Hamburg Police Department is using the ArcGIS platform from Esri to integrate systems, enabling real-time operations and promoting officer awareness in the field. 

The City of Hamburg was chosen to host the twelfth summit of the Group of Twenty (G20), which was held in July 2017. This meeting of international leaders is a high-profile, high-risk event, and Hamburg Police had to modernize operations to ensure the safety of summit attendees and the security of the city in general. Preparations included the creation of security zones in and around the conference location and to and from the airport and a significantly larger police force, bolstered by police from agencies across Germany, to handle the expected protest events during the summit.

As current systems were being evaluated in preparation for the G20 summit, department staff realized that they needed to modernize. Their existing systems and databases were siloed and resource intensive. Every business unit in the agency had incompatible workflows and wasn't equipped for an event of this size.

After a detailed analysis of the current technology, Esri and IT service providers Dataport AöR and Eurocommand were tasked with integrating and modernizing existing systems into a complete geospatial platform to promote seamless, real-time data sharing. But no project is without special challenges, and the team was given a deadline of December 2016 to complete the project (a mere five months away).

Through a combined effort, Esri and its partners were able to build an ArcGIS technology-based platform that met the department's needs by the set deadline. The finished platform integrated many data sources into a single, map-based interface that could be accessed through a web-based portal. This gave officers access to information in the command center and in the field. Because the solution uses Web GIS, it is flexible, easy to use, and can be configured and shared via dashboards and mobile apps. The platform not only supports large events like the G20 summit but also daily police operations.

The completed CommandX system was built securely using ArcGIS Enterprise behind the Hamburg Police Department's firewall and gave users access to live basemaps, layers, and data, which could then be edited and shared within the secure environment. The bulk of the work was completed in three months with an additional four weeks of training for the 700 police personnel who would be the administrators, publishers, and viewers of the integrated command system.

Hamburg Police Department staff felt they were now ready for the G20 summit, and the new system was used in the establishment of security zones, planned road closures, and creation of dignitary protection plans. Police forces were again augmented by thousands of auxiliary forces from throughout the country, bringing the total number to about 15,000 uniformed personnel. Management of all these officers would put the platform to the test. In the weeks leading up to the summit, protests ranging from peaceful marches to violent riots occurred. With the CommandX system, police personnel in the ops center were able to rapidly respond to security threats as they occurred.

Post-G20 summit, the system is now being used to support daily police, emergency management, and municipal fire department operations. Relevant operational data is updated in real time and integrates vehicle locations, camera systems, and other real-time sensor data. Because of its flexibility, the system continues to grow and evolve with the many public safety missions of the City of Hamburg.