The City of Ogden, Utah, with a population of approximately 85,000 people, is located at the base of the Wasatch Mountains with incredible views of the Great Salt Lake to the west. Through the years, the city has served as a major railway center and continues to handle a great deal of rail traffic today.
The Ogden Police Department (OPD) has the responsibility for protecting life and property through the enforcement of federal, state, and local laws. This includes responding to active calls for service; some of an emergency nature and others for information, traffic control, or citizen requests for any public safety-related matter.
Most of the department’s efforts and manpower were focused on the suppression, detection, and investigation of crime. Traditionally, this activity comes after discovering or being notified of a possible criminal situation. The department understood the importance of attempting reduce crime and criminal opportunity through Intelligence Led Policing with the use of technology.
Crime Analysis with Maps
The Ogden Police Department (OPD) consists of 144 sworn officers serving the community’s 85,000 residents. The OPD crime analysis unit first began using the full capabilities of Esri GIS software for its daily work nearly a decade ago. Analysts could compare incident information — such as burglaries, robberies, assaults, auto theft, gang activity, and other crime — with other information, such as the location of parolees, sex offenders, known criminals, and gang members. This provided an initial data picture that supported the predictive analysis or geographic profiling processes. The means used to drive these initial efforts involved a manual extraction of data from systems such as the Records Management System (RMS) and Computer Aided Dispatch (CAD). This was a very time & labor intensive process and complete information was not readily available.
It was also dependent on the presence and capabilities of just a handful of people. The OPD crime analysis unit analyzed the data and supplied monthly statistical reports to command staff and lieutenants. The information was used to develop crime reduction plans and respond to issues of concern.
Real-Time Crime Center (RTCC)
OPD reached its next technology milestone by setting up a RTCC. The RTCC began using GeoShield to integrate disparate data sources and gather actionable insights in real-time. The center houses connection to multiple records: local warrants, criminal history, jail data, property information, arrest affidavits, and more to get consolidated view. These records are used by analysts, administrators, investigators, and officers in the field to derive insights and plan an action.
GeoShield has accelerated the data collection process by integrating disparate data sources into a unified dashboard. The data is available to the user in a feature rich spatial environment with advanced analytics capabilities. Dynamic crime mapping, heat mapping, and clustering are all part of this enhanced environment. Users quickly and easily develop actionable intelligence which is shared in real-time across the entire organization.
OPD can perform advanced analysis and digitally map the results for easy reference. These functions have allowed police staff to effectively deter crime and make arrests. Bringing those functions into the RTCC has helped extend these benefits to all employees at all levels.
The daily use of GeoShield in the Ogden RTCC has been a force multiplier for their Intelligence Led Policing activities. The result is an increase in citizen and officer safety, an improved quality of life in the community, and a reduction in crime for the City of Ogden.
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