NCJ Number
201165
Journal
Law and Order Volume: 51 Issue: 6 Dated: June 2003 Pages: 128-130
Date Published
June 2003
Length
3 pages
Annotation
This article describes three software packages that enable first responders to a crisis incident to obtain information about the layout of the site of the incident and deploy personnel and equipment accordingly.
Abstract
Inspired by the tragedy at Columbine High School, Steven Larsen developed Tactical Survey software, now offered by his Tactical Survey Group, Inc. The core of Tactical Survey is a new interactive technology called fully spherical immersive imagery that lets users look up, down, right, and left virtually seamlessly in 360 degrees. Embedded in the imagery are tactical intelligence, polar navigational aids, field-verified ground and aerial interactive maps, ingress vector video, and a complete tactical database of site/location specific data. Although initially developed for school incidents, many new applications have been found for the software, including terrorism incidents, fires, earthquakes, and hostage situations, as well as hazardous materials incidents. Another software package, whose development began 2 years before Columbine, is called SEMPS; it features a database that provides a virtual tour of an entire facility, and it can be easily accessed on a PC, Pocket PC, or mobile computer. The software contains comprehensive, interactive, hyperlinked information that includes emergency contacts, main utility shut-off locations, security system and fire system device locations, building floor plans, maps, 360-degree video images, related community information, and aerial photographs. The third software package profiled in this article is called the CIRA database, which includes information that ranges in scale from an entire metropolitan area down to high resolution images with sufficient detail to show locations of and relation between, for example, a pencil sharpener, waste can, and individual locker in a particular room in a specific school. Aerial and satellite photos that cover the school locations are positioned within a Geocanvas to provide a nested aerial view of the immediate neighborhood around a specific school, including roads and structure.