Lancaster, Pennsylvania (July 31, 2013) – The Philadelphia Police Department and the Philadelphia Police Department Mapping and Analysis Unit were jointly honored to receive the distinguished 2013 Special Achievement in GIS Award on July 8th at the 2013 Esri International User Conference. The award was given in recognition of a state-of-the-art ArcGIS for Server environment enabling interactive web mapping, query, and analysis of numerous law enforcement databases. A description of the Police Department’s GIS project can be viewed online at the 2013 SAG Award Winners web site and a video of the Police Department’s presentation during the 2013 International User Conference plenary session can be viewed online at Esri’s video web site.

As the Police Department’s GIS consultant for the past three years, geographIT® was indirectly honored to be a part of the team. Mr. Andrew Smart, GISP and Sr. GIS Analyst at geographIT®, attended the conference and gave a technical presentation on the 24 server architecture design, and the process of implementing and administering the ArcGIS REST services that are consumed by various Police Department GIS applications.

“We were honored to receive the 2013 Esri SAG Award”, said Mr. U. S. Grant Ervin, Public Safety GIS Program Manager. "This award recognizes the direct impact that GIS can have improving public safety. Mapping multiple law enforcement datasets and analyzing the geo-temporal patterns of the data at the neighborhood level helps to determine the modus operandi of criminals and refine police beats. It also helps to solve crimes.”