Redlands Police and Local Businesses Use GIS to Keep Shoppers Safe

Redlands, in Southern California, is known for its orange groves and Victorian homes. It’s located between Los Angeles and Palm Springs in San Bernardino County, split by the I-10 and I-210 freeways. With over 73,000 residents, it’s a lively city that draws visitors for its restaurants, shops, nightlife, and cultural events.

When Redlands started to reclaim its pre-COVID vibrancy in 2023, local businesses, especially those at the Citrus Plaza and Mountain Grove shopping centers, encountered a troubling uptick in retail theft and other crimes. In response, the Redlands Police Department (RPD), under the leadership of Chief Rachel Tolber, has taken a data-driven approach using geographic information system (GIS) technology.

Upon being sworn in as police chief in 2023, Chief Tolber, along with the 148 full-time RPD personnel, faced a significant surge in retail theft that coincided with the reopening of businesses and commercial centers. The rise in thefts was multifaceted, influenced by the return to prepandemic activity levels and the effects of California’s Proposition 47. This law, enacted before the pandemic, decriminalized certain types of crimes and reclassified shoplifting of merchandise valued under $950 as a misdemeanor, potentially contributing to the rise in retail theft and other criminal activities.

The Citrus Plaza and Mountain Grove retail centers are at the heart of shopping and entertainment in Redlands. Located near the I-210 and I-10 freeways and populated by big-box retail stores, a movie theater, restaurants, and many smaller retailers, the shopping area had become the epicenter of the increasing crime incidents. Emboldened, thieves seemed more organized than the usual shoplifters who had been active in Redlands stores previously. This rising lawlessness began to threaten the economic viability of local businesses, put store employees in dangerous situations, and made shoppers feel less safe.

Retailers turned to RPD for a solution to the growing problem, and Chief Tolber and her executive team knew that it was necessary to understand the issues and then implement an evidence-based approach to problem-solving. As a graduate of the National Institute of Justice’s Law Enforcement Advancing Data and Science (LEADS) Scholars Program and a founding member of the American Society of Evidence-Based Policing, Chief Tolber’s background emphasized the importance of leveraging data and technology, which led RPD to address this challenge by implementing GIS for mapping and analysis.

The first question Tolber and her team needed to answer was, is there actually a problem? To answer that, RPD started with an analysis and review of current and historic data. They wanted to know if crime and incidents were rising, where and when they were occurring, and if there were hot spots or patterns that could be used to drive response.

RPD uses ArcGIS Enterprise for mapping and analysis of crime data. They had used ArcGIS Dashboards in the past to visualize and share information, and they turned to Esri again to analyze and understand this challenge. City of Redlands crime analyst Amy Varela examined historic calls for service and crime data around the shopping centers. She worked with City of Redlands GIS supervisor Claudia Caceres to build a retail theft dashboard that could be used by RPD command staff to understand the problem and make data-driven decisions.
 

Updated nightly and designed with user-friendly, interactive features, these dashboards allow officers to explore trends and answer critical questions independently. Hosted in ArcGIS Experience Builder, the dashboards provide insights such as identifying hot spots, pinpointing the busiest locations, tracking current trends, identifying common incident types, and determining peak times by day and hour.

In March of 2024, after analyzing data and consulting with local merchants, RPD assigned a dedicated community engagement team (CET) of officers to patrol retail centers and work directly with retailers. To address challenges comprehensively, RPD command staff and officers are now using the dashboards to understand the problem holistically. These tools enable officers and command staff to quickly identify problem areas and measure key performance indicators (KPIs), such as the number of arrests, repeat offender patterns, and overall trends in retail center activity. By analyzing this data, the team gains a clearer understanding of how enforcement efforts are impacting crime and disorder.

CET is also actively engaging with local retailers, using the data from dashboards to support a collaborative approach to problem-solving. CET and property managers regularly meet to review the dashboard data trends, including the business locations of the highest number of calls for service, top crimes of concern, as well as crime prevention tips and communication between retail security and law enforcement. These meetings facilitate open discussions that prioritize problem-solving and accountability.

Though less than a year old, the implementation of the dashboards and CET has already yielded positive results. Retailers have a better understanding of the causal factors that they can often address without even involving the police. Increased officer visibility has acted as a deterrent to would-be criminals. Officers are engaging with groups of teenagers and preemptively deterring possible disturbances. Homeless individuals encountered can be connected to local resources for housing and treatment. Shoppers who see officers in the retail centers feel more safe and secure.
 

Somewhat surprisingly, since the initiative has started, reported incidents have gone up. But when the data is looked at more closely, one can quickly see why. CET officers assigned to the shopping centers are taking more reports and making more arrests because they are better positioned to spot suspicious activity, contact suspicious individuals, and respond to incidents. As Deputy Chief Stephen Crane puts it, “Just within the first couple months, we saw a big impact with the visibility, and the business owners are obviously super happy. But also knowing that when a call goes out, the (CET) team’s already on scene, or they are seeing the incident as it occurs.”

The combination of data, technology, analysis, and collaborative policing is proving so successful that the police department plans to use this approach to support other public safety initiatives. Frustrated by the rise in retail crimes, California voters recently approved Prop 36, making shoplifting a felony for repeat offenders and increasing penalties for certain drug offenses. Equipped with GIS, RPD plans to grow its community engagement team to provide more coverage to address these concerns, as well as develop additional dashboards to support other police missions and teams.