Dashboard for Police Officers

[CMShelle]

I am thinking of creating a project for our police department where the officers are able to use this software out in the field when someone approaches them and asks where the pools, schools, parks, rec centers, etc. are for their children to use. I was thinking ArcGIS Dashboard is a good option because you can be able to select what layer (schools for example) you want to see and it will "flash" all schools within our city limits. I was curious to hear what everyone's thoughts are and if you think dashboard is the best option for the officers out in the field to use on their phones, tablets, laptop.

[Katie_Clark]

Dashboards are great if you have a lot of statistics you want to track, etc. For something as map-centric as this, I personally think a web application is your best bet. Within the web application, the user could toggle relevant layers on and off, pan to their current location, etc.

On that note, if this is something your police officers are getting asked on a regular basis (quite surprising to me, honestly!) I might even recommend making this application public and sharing it through a QR code on signs throughout your community. Just a thought!

Also, disclaimer, I know Web AppBuilder is going to be phased out by ExperienceBuilder, I just don't have a lot of experience working with it yet. But I recommend looking into both as possible options, rather than a Dashboard.

Just my two cents! Good luck 🙂

[MobiusSnake]

Have you looked at ArcGIS Instant Apps?  There's an instant app called "Nearby" which sounds like it'd be a good fit for this.

[CMShelle]

Does ArcGIS Instant Apps work on IOS and Android devices? This idea sounds perfect

[MobiusSnake]

They run as web apps rather than native apps (like Field Maps or Survey123), but yes, they should work fine.

[CMShelle]

So you just need the link to share to all the officers (or put on our share page)? Do they all need ESRI accounts to be able to log in to access it?

[MobiusSnake]

If you're fine making the app, map, and all of the layers in the map publicly available, the officers wouldn't require accounts.  Of course this means anyone could access the app, but that doesn't seem like a negative thing to me; it sounds like the locations you're using are public knowledge, so presumably a publicly-available app and data would be fine.

You could also create a QR code to the app and place it in public areas or on city publications, and the public would be able to open the apps themselves by just snapping the QR code.

If you do expose them to the public, just make sure the layers are read-only, otherwise someone might vandalize your data.