Challenge
Historically, the Vancouver Police Department stored
mission-critical data in disparate systems with no
communication between records management systems,
analysis systems and project/case systems. This resulted
in duplication of efforts, data redundancy and a heavy
administrative burden for support staff tasked with manually
transferring data from one system to another.
Information silos were also detrimental to investigations:
critical elements of investigations would often be scattered
over multiple jurisdictions and not easily shared. By the time
data was located and consolidated, it could often be out of
date and no longer helpful to the investigation.
Limited data access meant that officers coming back to
work from a four-day rotation would have little insight
into what had occurred during their time off. To improve
operations, the department needed to simplify analytical
processes and eliminate manual tabulation. They also
needed to extend mapping and analysis capabilities
beyond crime analysts so that data could be collected,
collated, evaluated and analyzed by those who rely on it.
Vancouver Police Department equips
officers with access to real-time data and
powerful geospatial analysis capabilities
Prior to introducing an intelligence-led approach to policing, analysts and investigators
with the Vancouver Police Department (VPD) would manually sift through hundreds of
police records to find correlations in data, costing valuable time and money. To vastly
improve crime analysis and resource deployment, VPD implemented a Department-wide
data warehouse that contains provincial-level police information. To extend access to
the data along with self-serve mapping capabilities, the department leveraged Esri's GIS
technology and developed an innovative dashboard known as GeoDash.
1 Esri Canada | Law Enforcement Dashboard empowers proactive crime control and targeted response
