City of Stirling, Australia

City of Stirling Keeps the Community Safe

Mobile Spatial Technology Overhauls City Security

At the City of Stirling in Western Australia, city rangers and security patrol officers are using mobile spatial technology to help them keep the community safe and revolutionize service provision. A mobile field information and recording system provides officers with on-the-spot access to view and update information on personal digital assistants (PDAs).

For the first time, field users can accurately record and report incidents such as dog attacks and faults such as graffiti and potholes. Field users work with mapping data, record date and time information, and access user- and task-related data. The technology brings together a number of systems and provides officers with direct access to information previously available only at the desktop. Users have access to maps showing property boundaries, owner information, animal registrations, and other notes for all properties within the district. With GPS capability, users can log incidents and request action when repairs are needed.

The Project Objectives:

Integrate disparate field data
Implement mobile spatial technology citywide

The Solution:

The City of Stirling selected Intergraph ’s IntelliWhere® OnDemand for use in the field. Properties of interest are displayed with different digitized points and colors to indicate information such as registered dogs, restricted breed dogs, vacant lots, and firebreaks. Users can easily record information using custom forms with a pick- and-tick format. Currently, the city’s Community Safety Unit has112 incident types within the forms. The city is using HP iPAQ PDA hardware (expanded) with Haicom GPS Modules. These are housed within a ruggedized case to prevent damage during normal field use.

Back at the office, reporting has undergone a major overhaul. Text and map-based reporting is easily accessible on the desktop via a Web environment, and is based on accurate, current data. Reports can be obtained on any of the 112incident types, or for individual operators, work zones, time periods, or a combination of these. The system can be queried to determine patterns of incidence in a geographic area, allowing staff to schedule patrols and establish strategies that address the problem areas and time periods. Some of this information was available in the past, but a significant portion was anecdotal and therefore open to error and user interpretation. It was also very time consuming to enter and extract information.

The new system enables the Community Safety Unit to accurately report on patrol officer and ranger attendance to incidents such as alarms and patrol requests. The GPS records a user’s geographical position throughout a work shift. This information is particularly useful in managing operations and providing evidence to residents that patrols are occurring as requested.

Fast Support, Measurable Results

The city’s director of community development, Trevor Holland, said that the Community Safety field staff had responded very positively to the technology, with many acknowledging the benefits of the system after only weeks of use. “We conducted training in house, and despite some officers having minimal exposure to this type of software, they are all now well advanced and competent in the use of the units,” Holland said.

The city’s priorities in choosing a solution provider included user-friendly technology that required minimal training for field officers and could be expanded for future use by other city departments. “The development of this technology places the city in an ideal position to further automate processes while at the same time providing valuable information to field officers when and where they need it,” Holland said. “Other roles that may benefit in future from this technology include our environ-mental health officers and building and zoning inspectors.”

Future stages of the project will result in further development of links between the mobile field system and other core systems within the city. Links will also be developed to enable the Community Safety Unit to send data on incidents and faults particularly graffiti damage, directly to the Western Australian Police Services.

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