Houston Police Department GIS Unit
GIS with a purpose. Helping leaders in the department make better informed decisions; increasing safety through better information sharing.
The HPD GIS Unit is a 3 man team that seeks to serve the approximate 6,000 employees of the Houston Police Department. The GIS Unit takes both a top-down and bottom-up approach to leveraging GIS throughout the department in order to gain the most buy-in possible from the end users. This was done by deploying an ArcGIS Enterprise configuration including Portal, Sites, Survey123, Dashboards, web applications, and ArcGIS Pro.
GIS Unit History
Getting the GIS Unit to where it is today started by the efforts of the current GIS Manager, Patrick Alexander. The first step was gaining buy-in and an executive sponsor who he found through his division commanders. The GIS Unit was created and tasked with providing support solutions for units and divisions across the department.
Criminal Intelligence Analyst Nick Batiste was brought in to serve as a GIS Analyst for the unit. Nick picked up the reins of helping train and prepare the 100 analysts across the department to use GIS. Nick acts as the go-to person for troubleshooting questions, conducting user training and completing most project requests that come in to the unit.
In January of 2019, the GIS unit brought in Sergeant Freddy Croft, who was acting as a crime analysis supervisor at the time to help engage the different police units and help create applications with the officer in mind. Utilizing Sergeant Croft's knowledge of department front line operations, the GIS Unit set out to deploy a full scale Enterprise deployment utilizing the different Enterprise solutions to solve problems.
Building awareness & buy-in
The GIS Unit focused it's attentions on two prevalent problems facing the department: situational awareness by leaders and access to information by front line employees.
We needed to cultivate buy-in from upper management and front line employees. We did this through developing an innovative use of Web GIS that enabled information sharing, situational awareness, and data driven decision making tools.
HPD GIS Portal
The Enterprise GIS Portal was stood up to act as a hub for our GIS content creators, of which HPD has approximately 100. Purpose build web applications and dashboards were created to solve the problem of situational awareness.
We quickly identified that the Portal was not the ideal way of delivering content to our front line employees. We needed a better way to custom deliver content to specific user groups. Sites was the answer.
GIS Website
To address the problem of access to information, the GIS Unit stood up a fully customized deployment of Sites aimed at being a one-stop shop for employees across the department to access information they need.
Having our own website allowed us to communicate directly to our end users. We had to be deliberate in the way we did communicated our message.
A hyperlink to the GIS website was placed on every department computer. The website is hosted behind the department's firewall, making it only accessible to employees who are logged in to a network computer.
Train as you fight.
The Know Your Beat application was created as a way to allow officers to ease in to the uses and capabilities of GIS and get familiar with how applications work. It allows officers to get key insights in to the area that they work.
Officers can select the area that they work and get information related to that area such as its size, how many schools are in it and even a snapshot of recent crime.
The About Us section is where we communicate the mission and vision of the HPD GIS Unit, answering the question of "What is GIS?" and "What does your unit do?"
The Meet the Team section allow us to put a face to name of the GIS Unit. Using an embedded storymap we allow employees to see who we are.
Employees can click through the different team members and get an idea of who we are by reading a quick biography.
The page acted as a feedback loop as users would often reach out with commends on our bio or picture.
Using a sites within sites concept, we created quick how-to guides and tips and tricks and presented them as mini-blog posts.
Our Project Assistance Request page allows users to reach out directly to us for help on their projects.
The form captures all of the necessary information we need to start a project and acts as our own ticket management system.
The GIS Resources page serves as a repository for all GIS related documents and training. Technical documents are uploaded and kept here and users can find both internal and external training opportunities.
The Training Page is where we announce and schedule training events for our employees. At the top, we post any upcoming training announcements.
The middle section has an embedded storymap with tabbed surveys that allow users to sign-up for internal training.
At the bottom, using a dashboard without a map, we pull in the different sign-up rosters on the different surveys, allowing users to see where they are in the class when they sign-up.
This process allows us to host training without need of a cumbersome or expensive talent management system.
Our Unit Dashboard page is an unindexed page that our unit keeps up on our desktop to track incoming requests.
Project requests and the training signups are displayed in two different dashboard without a map displays.
Our Patrol Unit Apps page was created to act as a one stop shop for all resources created for use by front line officers.
This page is broken down in to three sections:
- Public Web Applications
- Restricted Web Apps
- Reports Menu
All resources are accessible using 2 clicks and a sign-on.
The unrestricted applications are those which require no sign-on to view and can help in daily workflows for employees.
The restricted section contains applications that require users to sign-on to view. These applications allow users to view sensitive information and even read reports directly from a web application.
At the bottom, the Reports menu acts as a repository for non-GIS links and reports; making this site a one-stop-shop for anything that patrol officers might need in their daily activities.
A one-stop-shop for anything that patrol officers might need"
While sites was a game changer in the way we were able to deliver content to our end users, it's not what gets us excited about GIS. Creating solutions to existing problems is our mission.
GIS With a Purpose
Observing problems and creating solutions
During Hurricane Harvey in 2017, Sergeant Croft was a front line supervisory helping manage the response to the storm in the HPD Westside Division.
After the storm had passed, a large part of Westside's area had suffered major flooding and they were noticing a new crime trend.
Criminals were going in and burglarizing vacant homes that were flooded during the storm; re-victimizing the complainants and taking the few things they had left.
Analyzing the area, it was observed that the burglary groups were going in to neighborhoods and hitting house after house on the same street.
Officers identified an area most recently hit by this group and saturated the area with undercover officers.
In less than a week, the Westside Crime Suppression Team caught the criminals in the act, arresting multiple suspects and recovering over $100,000 worth of stolen items. The items were returned to their owners and numerous cases were solved. This was a big win; not only for the officers but to the concept of putting actionable intelligence into the hands of the front line officers.
This was a big win; not only for our division, but it also proved how effective it can be putting actionable intelligence into the hands of our front line officers can be.
Houston Police Department Department Operations Center (DOC)
During major events, the Houston Police Department stands up their Department Operations Center or DOC.
The DOC is where strategic decisions are made that affect the department's response to major events such as hurricanes, floods, and unplanned events.
The GIS Unit created an unindexed page in Sites that is activated when the DOC activates. The DOC Resources Page links to all DOC related web applications and dashboards.
The High Value Target Dashboard tracks all Jewelry stores, pawn shops, gun shops and pharmacies across the City of Houston. It also takes a top-down approach to unit assignments allowing for DOC analysts and patrol supervisors to make assignments in the field that can be staffed with officers.
By seeing where officers are in the field, the DOC can know where they currently have coverage and where they have holes to cover.
The High Value Target editor makes it as easy as clicking on the map where an officer needs to be assigned. The information can then later be filled in when the assignment is made.
During major flooding events, tracking the locations that are flooded is a major task for the DOC.
By using the same style editor as the High Value Target, officers in the field can show exactly where flooding is happening right from their patrol car.
Taking a bottom-up approach to leverage the 5000 sworn officers in the Houston Police Department, the officers in the field can provide real time information to the DOC.
By providing additional fields in the data, the officers can also request barricades or notes on the severity of the flooding at the location.
All of the information input by officers is automatically updated on the High Water Hazard Dashboard which is displayed in the DOC; providing real time situational awareness to the Command Staff.
The dashboard also tracks deployed resources, allowing for easier pickup later. All data is archived after the event, allowing for better after action analysis.
Specialized Applications
The GIS Unit creates web applications and dashboards for specialized units throughout the department to allow them to harness GIS to better complete their current workflows.
Active Shooter Prepardness
The GIS Unit was contacted by a divisional unit to make a better way of preplanning for active shooter events.
All of the schools of Houston were mapped out and field supervisors are able to preplan basic responses to individual schools in the event of an active shooter event.
The supervisors making the plan can edit any of the data, ensuring it is up-to-date as possible.
Patrol officers are then able to access the plans through a viewer application that filters out only plans pertaining to the specific school based on the school they are responding to.
By having locations for traffic control, life-flight landing and reunification zones predetermined, officers are able to keep their focus on helping victims.
These plans are meant as a guides for the response after a threat has been eliminated during a school shooting event.
Documents such as floor-plans and hyperlinks to camera systems are able to be attached and embedded in to the school features themselves.
Gang Intel Application
The Gang Intel App was created for the Gang Division as a way for them to track and record the ever fluid gang territories throughout Houston.
This app enables them to do content creation directly from the Portal, bypassing the need for desktop GIS.
Information from other applications such as recent crime, schools and apartments allow the gang officers the ability to do analysis all in one place.
Applications like these have the added benefit of capturing that intrinsic knowledge that is generally only kept in the respective officer's heads or units.
Data-driven approach to law enforceent
Once our Enterprise Portal was launched, it gave us the ability to share sensitive information like never before. A host of web applications and dashboards were created in response to showcase this new ability.
Recent Crime Viewer
Creating a solution for the Command Staff to allow them to get a finger on the pulse of what's going on in Houston was essnetial.
The recent crime viewer allows all officers to see crime as it's happening. As an officer generates a report, it is added to the dashboard.
The dashboard also allows users to dig deeper in to the crime, do analysis on crime by shift, type, area, crime type and more. Users can also read the reports directly from the dashboard.
Empowering the end users to get information they need, when they need it.
Crime Microzones
The Crime Analysis Unit created the Crime Microzone. Instead of showing where the crime is happening now, the application shows where crime is always happening.
Analysis revealed that more than 25% of the crime happens in 1% of the city.
Aggregating the crime within small, drivable hex patterns, officers in their patrol car and supervisors at their computers can quickly see where their trouble spots are in their area.
Actionable intelligence allows for tactical deployment of resources.
The Road Ahead
Special Event Solution
Houston PD GIS Unit is deploying the ESRI special event solutions to plan, implement and track special events (Superbowl, Parades, etc) in real time.
Drone Utilization
Using drone imaging, we will be able to 3D model critical infrastructure and high-vulnerability locations around the city to better plan responses to events at those locations. With 3D drone imaging, we will be able to have more up-to-date imaging than most satellite imaging provides as well as interact and create response plans with precise location information.
Vision Zero.
Vision Zero
Take aways
- The power of web GIS has allowed us to enable the HPD with maps and apps that help solve crime, improve efficiency and provide a safe environment for the citizens. By marketing the capabilities of GIS we’ve raised awareness of the power of GIS.
- “When you have a boss that thinks about GIS a lot, then that’s a win.”
- “Get executive buy-in and champions – we have that.”
- We’re a small team and we built this system, and you can too.
- The GIS Unit went from supporting the department from behind to leading from the front.
- GIS is making a real difference in the police department and making an impact in the city by helping to enhance the quality of life in Houston.
