Tuesday, March 15, 2005

3:00 p.m.

IT Pueblo Room

Present: Laura Pinnas, TEP; Bill Marum, City of Tucson Development Services Department; Christine O'Connor, COT IT; Dee Korich, COT Environmental Services; Donald Ijams, Tucson Police Department; Mike Helies, COT ES; Steve Whitney, PCDOT; Teri Schultz, TFD; Diane Tentschert, COT IT; Jesse Reyes, COT UPD; Pat McGarrity, MMLA-Psowias; Yvonne Morken, Tucson Fire; Bryn Enright, Tucson Water; Bob Czaja, Tucson Water; Autumn Figueroa, COT Urban Planning and Design; Blanca Espino, COT DSD

Chair: Donald Ijams

Presentation - "Mapping Assistance for Understanding a Crime Series" - Don Ijams

Don Ijams (Tucson Police Department) used ArcView 3.3 in a live session to show Cooperative members in attendance how a crime series could be studied. A group of 11 bank robberies from late 2003 and early 2004, believed to be committed by the same person, were displayed on a map of Tucson. Don added a crime analysis extension to ArcView that let him process the data in useful ways.

He sorted the data into date order, added a record number and exposed the X and Y coordinates in the data table. He then showed 1 and 2 standard deviation rectangles and ellipses, to describe the spatial layout of the robbery series. A convex hull was added to show the "hunting ground" of the robber. The geometric center was calculated and displayed.

Perhaps the most useful process was in laying out the sequential path the robber followed, from the first robbery to the last. A three ring hit buffer was calculated, based on the last robbery in the series. A new layer was added - all the banks and financial institutions in the City. A candidate list of potential next hits was shown, with discussion of additional features of banks that might make them more or less likely to be the next hit. Detectives staked out some of the likely next hits during the highest probability time frame, and ended up arresting the robber as he cased one of these sites. Don also showed other mapping techniques used by the Tucson Police Department in its efforts to stay current in crime trends and for planning strategies for crime reduction.

Education/Training Subcommittee/Contact - Don Ijams

The idea of more formal monitoring of GIS training opportunities and needs was discussed, and members of the group were requested to consider volunteering to serve in this capacity for the Cooperative.

GIS Cooperative Intern Status - Don Ijams

A flyer has been prepared, to announce the job opening for the Cooperative sponsored GIS Intern position. March 28 is the closing date and members were asked to spread the word on the opening. The need for good mentoring of GIS Interns was discussed, as was the good experience had by both interns and their parent agencies in recent years.

COT Utility Services Department GIS reclassification effort - Bryn Enright and Bob Czaja

Bryn and Bob described their several year effort to get professional GIS job classifications established in the City of Tucson. They have gathered a great deal of information from various utilities and cities on comparable positions, and have prepared material for City Human Resources to use in setting up job classifications here. Five levels of GIS Professional have been defined. Christine O'Connor will check with City HR to see where our process is and what needs to be done next.

GIS Reclassification Point of Contact - Don Ijams

Bryn Enright agreed to be the Cooperative's point of contact on the GIS job classification issue.

IDT/ePortal News - Bill Marum - Laura Pinnas (Site admin), Steve Whitney (IGA)

Bill has held some phone meetings in recent weeks, to finalize the form to be used by participating organizations when setting themselves up for electronic plans submission. Several points need to be worked out for the work process to be complete. Steve reported that the Intergovernmental Agreement process related to the portal (between IDT and the County) has been reviewed and signed off, and will be executed in the near future. It was also reported that Tucson Electric Power will be able to execute an agreement of the same type.

ArcGIS I class - Don Ijams

Don reported that 11 City of Tucson employees will be taking the Cooperative sponsored ArcGIS I class at SAIAT on April 5 - 6, 2005. Arrangements are complete for the class.

ArcView 3.x class - Don Ijams

If there is a continuing need for ArcView 3.x training, a new instructor will need to be found, since the current one (Ijams) is retiring from the City this summer.

GIS Coop Internet Site development - Dee Korich

Dee reported that she has taken over management of the Cooperative's website. She will be participating with the City's new Enterprise Content Management System process for updating web content. She is very interested to hear from Cooperative members on new ideas for web GIS-related content. The Cooperative's GEOWIZ list serv might be a good forum for discussing web site ideas.

Geowiz/email list revisions - Don Ijams

All persons in Larry Cassen's email group, for notices on Cooperative business, have all been added to the GEOWIZ list serv, to facilitate communication with a single email address.

Open floor

Steve Whitney gave an Ortho 2005/Pictometry update. He said that the final contract for the new orthophotography for eastern Pima County has been awarded to Sanborn Company. The expected flight date is in April 2005. Also, most issues in the Pictometry pilot project have been worked out. The money is available and the contract should be signed soon.

The City Departments of Development Services and Urban Planning and Design are now jointly working on updating zoning maps and related GIS layers, with particular focus on the City of Tucson portion of Pima County. Their work will officially start on March 21, 2005. A great deal of work is needed, as there are whole sections of the City with no information available at present.