SpatialNews Press Release
ESRI Technology Brings Real-Life Crime Mapping to CBS’s
The District
Redlands, California- ArcView GIS has made it to prime-time television on The District,
CBS’s new crime drama starring Craig T. Nelson. Debuting this fall, The District is based on the
experiences of real-life law enforcement hero Jack Maples, who is the show’s top law
enforcement consultant, and follows a fictional renegade police commissioner and his staff as
they work to reduce crime in the nation’s capital.
“TV audiences are going to see maps that are true and focused on reality,” says Lew
Nelson, law enforcement industry manager, ESRI. “Understanding this is a television
program, we’re working with The District to represent as accurately as possible how GIS
is used in law enforcement. This is special and unique to television. Whether it’s resource
deployment, mitigating a community policing issue, a hostage issue, a series of related
crimes, or any type of threat to the community, the maps used for the TV show are the
kinds of maps used by real crime mappers.”
Craig T. Nelson plays Jack Mannion, the new police commissioner of Washington,
D.C., brought in to overhaul an antiquated law enforcement agency ill-equipped to deal
with the problems of a sprawling, crime-ridden city. Mannion works to clamp down on
crime by empowering the District with new, powerful technologies including computer
mapping. Lynn Thigpen plays Ella Farmer, Mannion’s top assistant, who operates the
various technologies and GIS.
Part of an overall, comprehensive system known as COMSTAT, ArcView GIS is the
computer mapping engine that allows the characters in The District to map such things as
the locations of murders, armed robberies, and guns seized. COMSTAT is a process that
forces accountability and responsibility by requiring police commanders to be intimately
aware of crime and crime patterns in their areas. It requires mapping to accomplish this.
Used on the set of each episode of The District, COMSTAT is in fact a real-world
system used today by top law enforcement agencies to more effectively combat crime.
Week to week, episode to episode, computer mapping will get its prime-time spotlight as
a tool to help fight crime. Typical kinds of real-world GIS analysis and mapping include
crime analysis, traffic analysis, community policing analysis and mapping, and beat
structuring, parolee/Megan’s Law tracking, Internet crime mapping, community
mapping, and tactical/operations/incident command. These are the kinds of real-world
applications TV audiences will be exposed to when watching The District.
“The maps and the decision making processes surrounding those maps are the same
kinds of things used by law enforcement agencies in real life,” says Lew Nelson. “The
show’s crime analyst, named Ella Farmer, is a GIS user and a heroine on the show. Jack
Mannion takes an active role in using GIS. That’s exciting. It’s also exciting because
anyone familiar with GIS, whether working in government, environment, business, or in
some other market, can see a show where it is recognized that GIS is critical and has real
value.”
The District debuted October 7, 2000, and is scheduled to run every Saturday at
10:00 p.m. Pacific and Eastern time, 9:00 p.m. Central and Mountain time.
“The use of ArcView GIS grows in each episode,” says John Calkins, an ESRI staff
member and a GIS professional working on the set of The District. “For instance, episode
four includes ArcView GIS, ArcView Network Analyst, ArcView Tracking Analyst,
ArcView 3D Analyst, and even the Geography Network. In every episode, there is an
identification of a problem, and mapping is used to identify the problem and to frequently
address and mitigate the problem. We’d like to continue to support The District in any
way we can as long as the show airs.”
About ESRI: ESRI was founded in 1969 as a research group devoted to improving
methods of handling geographically referenced data. Today, ESRI is the leading
developer of geographic information system (GIS) software, with more than 100,000
clients worldwide. ESRI also provides consulting, implementation, and technical support
services. In addition to its headquarters in California, ESRI has regional offices
throughout the United States, international distributors in more than 70 countries, and
more than 500 resellers and developers. ESRI’s goal is to provide users with
comprehensive tools to help them quickly and efficiently manage and use geographic
information to make a real difference in the world around them. ESRI can be found on
the World Wide Web at www.esri.com.
ESRI, the ESRI globe logo, and ArcView are trademarks of Environmental Systems Research Institute, Inc.,
registered in the United States and certain other countries; registration is pending in the European Community. 3D
Analyst and GIS by ESRI are trademarks and Geography Network, @esri.com, and www.esri.com are service marks
of Environmental Systems Research Institute, Inc. Other companies or products mentioned herein are trademarks or
registered trademarks of their respective trademark owners.
Jesse Theodore October 10, 2000
ESRI
Tel.: 909-793-2853, extension 1-1419
E-mail: press@esri.com
Discuss This News With Others!
Return to Today's News Index
|
