Helping The Homeless With GIS: Case Study

Case Study
Public Safety Helping the Homeless

User
Rancho Cucamonga Police
with GIS
Department and Redlands Police
Department, California For the Southern California cities of Redlands and Rancho
Cucamonga, homelessness has been a growing issue. To
Challenge
better understand and help alleviate this problem, the police
To collect and share homeless
population data within various
departments in these cities turned to the use of geographic
departments and between information system (GIS) technology.
police officers from departments
throughout San Bernardino
The Challenge
County to provide assistance to
homeless citizens The Rancho Cucamonga Police Department (a contract agency for the San
Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department) and its Solution Oriented Policing team
Solution began to receive an increasing number of calls about homeless people in the
Used Collector for ArcGIS® and city. It was difficult for the deputies to communicate this new data to the other
Survey123 for ArcGIS to connect departments within the city or for those departments to share homeless camps
with and identify the cities’ data with the police team. The City of Redlands was also experiencing a growing
homeless populations and provide number of homeless people and was looking for a way to track them. To address
them with appropriate resources these issues, the police departments of both cities sought a solution that would
help them gain a better understanding of their homeless populations, what
Results services the cities could provide, and how the data could be shared within their
• Gained a better understanding respective police agencies and with other departments.
of the cities’ homeless
populations
• Improved collaboration
between police departments
and other relevant departments
• Working on best practices
between cities
“The app has been an The Solution
innovative step in homeless After researching data collection options, both cities decided to use GIS to
outreach and marks a help address their problems with the homeless camps and populations. Rancho
successful merging of GIS Cucamonga developed a mobile solution with the Collector for ArcGIS web
app to allow staff to easily communicate between departments by giving them
services and efforts to assist
real-time updates on all cases opened by any relevant department. The Redlands
the homeless.” Police Department decided to implement a GIS strategy with Esri’s Survey123
Amy Varela, CCIA for ArcGIS app, which provides the department with a fast and efficient data
Crime Analyst collection system.
Redlands Police Department
The Results
These apps ultimately allowed the cities’ police departments to better
understand the homeless population; the problems they face; and what services
they could benefit from, such as assistance in finding shelters, Veterans Affairs,
and county mental health services. Since deploying Collector and Survey123,
both Rancho Cucamonga and Redlands have greatly improved the efficiency
of their police departments in addressing homelessness in their respective
cities. Using these apps, Redlands identified 164 homeless adults and children
and Rancho Cucamonga made 215 contacts with the homeless. These include
multiple contacts with the same individuals. Specifically, Rancho Cucamonga
Police Department has been better able to share its stories, resulting in increased
collaboration and exchange of real-time data with other relevant departments.
And since Redlands implemented the use of GIS, it has been more successful
in identifying its homeless population and is better able to provide them with
appropriate resources, housing, and other assistance.
Because of this shared use of GIS, Rancho Cucamonga and Redlands are now
looking at using GIS technology to collaborate on addressing this problem.
The plan is to work with neighboring cities to develop best practices for San
Bernardino County in its entirety.
go.esri.com/RanchoAndRedlands
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Case Study

Public Safety Helping the Homeless

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