Redesign police response zones- like redistricting tool

[CarmenDurham]

Hello,

Our police department would like to redraw police response zones. With the current zones, some officers are working non-stop for 12 ours whereas others are not.

They would like to use the past year's calls for service (dispatch calls) to help redraw the zones.  Getting the dispatch calls from CAD and putting them into ArcGIS into a usable format is no problem. 

Showing hot spots and densities are not a problem.

But what would be really cool is to have something like the redistricting app Esri had after the 2010 census where one could draw re-draw boundaries and then the populations counts would change accordingly.

Is there some way to do this with number of dispatch calls?  Is there a way to do this easily like the redistricting app (where I can have the dispatch admin try her own polygons)?

I swear I have seen something like this that was beyond the census redistricting app of 5 yrs ago.

Thanks,

Carmen

[WesMiller]

You could use the redistricting tool to do this just use your past calls instead of population. I did this for our inspectors and used 5 years of calls and spatially joined the calls to the census block data.

[ChrisDelaney · Accepted solution]

Hi Carmen,

Thanks for your question! The cheapest and most common way analysts use ArcGIS to do this work is to use the Districting for ArcGIS tool. This is a free-to-download extension for ArcMap which will provide you the basic capabilities you need.

If you are looking for more of an app feel, Esri Redistricting may be right for you. This is a hosted web app, integrated with ArcGIS Online that enables you to perform redistricting work and collaborate with others. This app is not free however- for pricing info, please contact redistricting@esri.com​

Lots of other agencies have used such tools to do exactly the same work you need to do- If you do need help, I highly recommend the listserv of the International Association of Crime Analysts (www.iaca.net). The analysts on that board are always willing to help out with questions on method you might have!

Good luck, and feel free to contact me with any questions you might have!

Chris Delaney
Law Enforcement Patterns LeadEsri Law Enforcement Team

[CarmenDurham]

Thank you both for replying.

We have a small govt  ELA with a large number of credits - do happen to know if we can use the Online version with that? 

Which option (extension or Online) would work better if I wanted to:

Apply the number of dispatch calls to small polygons (reporting districts) and then build police beats by combining the reporting districts to come up with somewhat even values for total number of calls.

I wasn't sure if we HAD to use census blocks and apply number of calls to a census block and use that.

Of course a tight deadline on our end with limited crime analysis experience (although that really isn't too much an issue for this exact need)

We have EEAP credits which might be an option...

Thanks,

Carmen

[ChrisDelaney]

Carmen- is it okay if I touch base with your account manager and have her follow up directly?

[CarmenDurham]

Chris – if you want. I could ask her also but maybe you know exactly what to ask. Dawn Matasic in Charlotte is our main rep. Craig Mesimer is our EEAP rep.

Really – I would like to know which tool I should start exploring based on what I need to do (assuming the oNline option is available to us with our existing credits). I do not want to go down a path with one option only to find out it won’t work in our situation and need to explore the other option as we don’t have the time. If Online Redistricting is not an option, then at least I know there is only one option!!

Thanks for any info you can provide.

Carmen

Carmen T. Durham, GISP

GIS Technical Manager | Geographic Information Services

cdurham@greenvillesc.gov<mailto:cdurham@greenvillesc.gov> | www.greenvillesc.gov<http://www.greenvillesc.gov/>

PHONE: 864-467-4512 | FAX: 864-467-5754

[CarmenDurham]

Chris or anyone

(I will also send to districting@esri.com)

I downloaded the Districting for ArcGIS extension.  I have 10.2.1 so I downloaded the 10.2 version. 

I am trying to create a new plan following the tutorial guidelines and have immediately hit an error for which I have no idea how to continue.  I tried uninstalling and reinstalling the extension in a new location.  I have seen another posting with the same error but no one answered.

Any ideas of the fix?  How frustrating to think something might work only for the tutorial to fail!

In case you can't read the error...  "Error in UpdateDX_SA. Error Number: 55 Description: Could not find a part of the path "C:\Program Files\AiDistGen\temp\temp.xml'

(I do not see a folder called AiDistGen in Program Files)

[CarmenDurham]

I emailed districting@esri.com  and received a quick response.

She sent me another installation package that uses a different installer.  I uninstalled the existing and used the package provided.  I was able to complete the tutorial and think this might work for what we need.

Carmen

[RobertRose]

Does anyone know if the Districting add-on will be updated for ArcMap 10.4?