NCJ Number
231853
Journal
Law Enforcement Technology Volume: 37 Issue: 6 Dated: June 2010 Pages: 20-22,24,25
Date Published
June 2010
Length
5 pages
Annotation
This article examines disaster-mapping tools available for use by police departments around the country.
Abstract
This article discusses various disaster-mapping tools that are currently available to police departments, provides information on how to purchase disaster-mapping technologies, and technology enhancements that are currently in development. One disaster-mapping tool discussed is the Geographic Tool for Visualization and Collaboration (GTVC) developed by engineers at the Georgia Tech Research Institute. GTVC is designed to track the location and availability of critical emergency resources such as hospitals, transportation equipment, and water during disasters. Other systems discussed are DragonForce, which augments an agency's existing technology and equipment by running on commercial-off-the-shelf devices, and the Geographic Search and Referencing Platform, which geotags all sources of unstructured and semi-structured information to allow users to detect developing hot spots. It is also noted that aside from buying the technology, agencies need to educate the emergency management user community about the capabilities, develop and integrate the capabilities into plans and procedures, and develop training exercises to use the new technology. New, emerging technologies noted in the article include the integration of emergency operations center smartphones and use of point locations, the development of dynamic resource allocation, and the development of solutions that involve more direct user interaction with geospatial information.