Over the past few months the Village of Skokie’s Fire and Police Departments had been preparing for a full-scale flood disaster exercise. This exercise saw the activation of the Emergency Operations Center (EOC) at the Skokie Police Department and a number of scenarios that personnel had to react and respond to. The exercise simulated a flooding event resulting after 72 hours of successive rainfall, wind damage, and utility disruption. In preparation for the event, the Village called upon its Geographic Information Systems (GIS) to prepare maps and participate in the exercise by mapping storm events in real-time.

The Village of Winnetka has been hard at work developing and fine-tuning its Emergency Event Tool for emergencies as flooding, tornadoes, blizzards and more. This tool was brought to the test on April 18th, 2013 after a major flooding event in the Chicagoland area. Winnetka was experiencing large amounts of downpour rain in a small amount of time and required the assistance of GIS and Business Intelligence to track flooding patterns and areas of concern. Through the Emergency Event Tool, the flooding was able to be further analyzed by staff.

The Lake Forest Fire Department has recently collaborated with GIS to develop a MapOffice Custom Overlay for first responders. The overlay displays device locations and building information for First Responders to reference in the event of an emergency. Information available in the overlay includes Knox Box locations, FDCs (Fire Department Connections), sprinkler system/room information, electric shutoff, and fire alarm panel locations. Previously the Fire personnel would reference physical footprints of the building and have to sort through documents to locate a specified address. This method proved to be very time intensive.

Despite having state-of-the-art GIS technology at its fingertips, the Village of Glencoe still faces situations where access to electronic data is limited. One example of this is when emergency response personnel are involved in water rescues at Skokie Lagoons or the shores of Lake Michigan. When officers are using Public Safety watercraft, they do not have access to the same mapping technology that is available in the squad cars and other emergency vehicles. Fortunately, GIS is still able to provide support through print media, which can be stored on board for quick reference in an emergency.

The City of Highland Park uses the New Application to dispatch Fire and Police units to reported incidents. From the addresses used to accurately respond to incidents to the background layers used in the map, New World relies heavily on GIS information. Without accurate GIS information supplied by the City, the New World application would have difficulty creating accurate responses. One of the most crucial factors in accurate responses are good addresses. This is supplied by the GIS systems as address points and a street centerline. These are regularly reviewed and updated by the GIS Office and other City Employees.

In the wake of last year’s power outages, the Village of Skokie has been working with ComEd to solidify the communication during outage events. On June 21, 2012 the Village, ComEd and other surrounding communities participated in disaster exercise aimed at testing the communication and response in the Village and with ComEd. The exercise, a simulated tornado, called for events ranging from gas leaks and fires to overturned tankers spilling fuel into the sewer system to looters. The Village’s Geographic Information System (GIS) played a supporting role in the dissemination of information once events began to occur. Using a database to input the calls for service and MapOffice™ Advanced to display the information through Business Intelligence, the GIS Specialist was able to track events and gives decision makers more information to make better informed decisions.

As a part of its disaster preparedness process, the Village of Glencoe has been working with GIS to build a repository of maps to meet a variety of needs. One of the recent projects was the creation of an evacuation route map to distribute to the public during an event. The letter-sized map clearly highlights the main roads that lead in and out of the Village. By having copies on hand during an emergency, community staff will be able to quickly direct people to safety, even if they are unfamiliar with the area.

One of the many benefits to investing in a quality GIS program is the ability to repurpose that data to support other in-house computer applications. One example of this comes from the Lincolnshire Police Department, which uses the Village’s GIS address database in its dispatching software. Both the 911 and computer-assisted dispatch (CAD) software consume locally maintained address data, which has a higher validity and reliability standard than what is offered in commercial products. Further, address changes can be integrated quickly, leading to less confusion between dispatchers and officers in the field.

OakBrook Center is a large outdoor mall located in the northern part of Oak Brook. It is a very popular shopping destination throughout the greater Chicago land area and contains almost 150 unique addresses. Because of the high amount of activity and visitors to this particular area, it more susceptible to emergencies such as; crime, traffic accidents and medical related issues. The high density of addresses in such a small area makes it even more important for emergency responders know exactly which address to go to and which entrance provides the quickest route. It is also important to be able to communicate which general parking area and building they may be responding to. All of this information is provided in the fire pre-plans, but the pre plan does not contain a single map displaying every address in the area. Rather they must locate the address from an address list and refer to a separate individual building site map. This process takes time, which often times means the difference between seconds or minutes to respond to an emergency.

The Village of Winnetka, IL hosts numerous special events throughout the year, including a fireworks display during the Fourth of July holiday weekend. These types of events require the involvement and coordination of several village departments, including Public Works and the Police Department, and, often, outside agencies, such as the Winnetka Park District. To help improve the coordination and planning efforts between each group, the GIS (Geographic Information Systems) department developed several map products to assist with transferring event information more efficiently.

During an emergency event, the extent of the area affected and the number of issues occurring as a result of the event are just some of the factors that need to be processed, organized, and reviewed by local government staff to determine the most appropriate course of action. Perhaps the greatest challenge of any emergency response effort is controlling where information is coming from and determining which pieces of information are more critical than others. To help better organize information gathered during a recent storm event, the City of Des Plaines IL used the city’s Geographic Information Systems (GIS) department to assist with mapping and prioritizing the storm cleanup efforts.

It often seems that when crimes happen we seem to hear about them on the news. On the contrary, many crimes are reported that don’t attract high media attention. Which ever happens, it is extremely important that the Police Department is aware of the crime and that the activity is recorded for future analytical purposes. After these crimes are recorded what types of analytical operations take place? Are these crimes reviewed individually or compared to others in a group? Does geography play a factor?

The Skokie Park District in conjunction with the Village of Skokie hosts the Festival of Cultures. Over the years, it has become a premier ethnic festival in Illinois celebrating the food, music, and sports that define cultures throughout the world. This year will be the 21st for the festival. The Village of Skokie has a high presence during this festival and is working to promote downtown businesses during the event. The idea was to create a flyer to promote the Village’s downtown restaurants. To do this, the Village Manager’s office worked with the Village’s Geographic Information System to gather data and create a map showing all restaurants in the downtown area. The Village will be passing these out at their booth during the festival.

The Village of Oak Brook’s fire department keeps a comprehensive map of the village which incorporates all features they deem necessary for fire emergency response and planning. Included in this map are things such as fire hydrants, high pressure gas lines, highway mile markers, and many other features that assist them while responding to emergency situations. The most recent feature that they have requested is a full layout of all three golf courses in the village. This is a necessary element on the map because while responding to calls on a golf course people often refer to which hole they are on, or the fire department may need to know where the nearest high pressure water source is in the event of a fire. Having set layouts and plans for possible emergencies is what allows the fire department to do their job quickly and effectively.

The Village of Skokie’s state of the art Police Department houses the Village’s Emergency Operations Center (EOC). This center is utilized as a meeting destination for decision makers during an emergency event. The EOC is supported by generators during power outages and serve as a command center. Features of this center include two projectors with the ability to project eight inputs, power/data connections in the floor, and a partition that can split the room. Two kitchens, a supply room with cubbies for each department, and an adjoining conference room are just some of the additional amenities at the EOC.

The Village of Oak Brook’s community development department handles a variety of matters, one of which includes permitting for pyrotechnics. For this particular project, community development had a resident come in and request a permit for a private fireworks display on his property. In order for the permit to be granted, community development needed to figure out whether or not this resident’s property met the requirements set by the ordinance dealing with pyrotechnics. The ordinance states that no pyrotechnics can be set off within a distance of 21 feet of a building or neighboring property line, for every 1/5 inch of projectile barrel size. For this particular display, the required perimeter was 105’ from all buildings.

Emergency planning is a part of life. You have probably prepared for emergencies and not even realized it. It could be stocking up on extra pantry items before a blizzard or filling out an emergency contact form at your place of employment or child’s school. Though these are great examples of emergency preparedness, municipal government needs to reach much deeper. Preparing a home for an emergency is different than preparing 25,000 homes, businesses and schools for an array of natural and human disasters.

Public safety response is often not limited to the boundaries of a municipality and can include providing assistance to neighboring communities or direct response to unincorporated properties. This response can also extend to interstate systems that border a municipality, as is the case with the City of Des Plaines Fire Department.

During an emergency event, knowing how a community is being impacted as a whole can be just as important as responding to an individual emergency call. Having an overall view of the event can provide emergency response personnel with a better idea of how wide-spread the problems are and reveal potential patterns that can lead to better management of the response efforts. To help maximize its ability to respond to a community-level emergency, the Village of Winnetka GIS department developed a process for showing staff-generated emergency information in a real-time mapping environment.

Lake Forest will have access to the web version of MapOffice™ beginning June 1st. The month of May was spent preparing the base data needed to get MapOffice™ up and running, which involved loading previous GIS data into the GIS Consortium standardized database.

The Village of Norridge has begun mapping out traffic accident information in an effort to try and limit the amount of accidents in high traffic areas and understand why accidents occur in low traffic areas. A map was created using data provided by the police department detailing the locations of traffic accidents by month. Accident locations were added to the map and categorized by type (property damage, personal injury, village property, fatality). Eventually, as data from previous months is added to the database, patterns will begin to emerge.

As a new member of the GIS Consortium, the top priority in Lake Forest has been getting data ready for New World. New World used in some of the other Consortium communities, is a CAD software that uses GIS to map out the location of where calls are coming from.

During an emergency event, the type of event, the extent of the area affected, and the number of issues occurring as a result of the event are just some of the factors that need to be processed, organized, and reviewed by local government staff to determine the most appropriate course of action. Perhaps the greatest challenge of any emergency response is controlling where information is coming from and which pieces of information are more critical than others. Using GIS (Geographic Information System) as a tool in all stages of the emergency management process brings a spatial component to the planning and implementation of an action plan, helping to visualize all relevant information for a more efficient and successful community response.

The City of Park Ridge has recently invested in a new software application that enhances its ability to provide emergency alerts to its residents. The application, going by the name Everbridge Aware for Citizen Alerts, is a notification sytem that will call people on their phone and inform that about emregencies as well as other helpful non-emergency updates. The data in the system is supplied to the city by willful residents who fill out their information via the city’s website. Residents will give at least one phone number but have the option to supply a cell phone number, a business phone number or even an e-mail address. When an emergency or important event comes up, the system will send a message to the first number that a resident provided and wait for a confirmation of receipt from that resident. If the system does not receive a confirmation from the resident it will try the next method of choice that was outlined by the resident during the application process whether it be another phone number, text message or e-mail.

Although it is possible to put a number on the purchase price of a device that notifies people of an emergency, giving people amble time to reach safety is priceless. Like all Public Safety personnel who pride themselves in the art of providing a safe place for their residents to live, the Village of Morton Grove Fire Department is no different. They continue to look for new ways to ensure that they know their town and they know what their residents need.

Public Safety plays a crucial role in the day to day activities of Village of Lincolnshire. The Village of Lincolnshire Police Department believes that their daily activities help support a safe and vibrant community. A crucial operational aspect of the Police Department is conducted 24 hours, 7 days a week, all year long is Dispatch. The Dispatch Department and the highly trained officers are responsible for receiving and dispatching appropriate resources for all emergency and non emergency activities in the Village. The major focus of their operation is to respond to all calls placed to 911, dispatch resources, and relay information to officers in the field. Mapping is a major factor in this operation from locating the call in dispatch and to reporting location information to the officers in the field. Without highly accurate, detailed, and up to date mapping data would create a major challenge in the emergency response cycle.

Police, Fire, and EMS dispatch plays a very important and crucial role for any State, County, City, or Village; and any Dispatcher, Police officer, Firemen, or EMT will tell you that timing and accurate information is everything. The Village of Glenview utilizes Geography Information Systems (GIS) by integrating GIS data into their New World Systems (software mapping applications) for accurate computer aided dispatch. GIS and NWS give dispatchers the ability to supply all Police, Fire, and EMS with the most up to date address locations.

Public Safety plays a crucial role in the day to day activities of Village of Glencoe. The Village of Glencoe Public Safety Department believes that their daily activities help support a safe and vibrant community. A crucial operational aspect of the Public Safety Department is conducted 24 hours, 7 days a week, all year long is Dispatch. The Dispatch Department and the highly trained officers are responsible for receiving and dispatching appropriate resources for all emergency and non emergency activities in the Village. The major focus of their operation is to respond to all calls placed to 911, dispatch resources, and relay information to officers in the field. Mapping is a major factor in this operation from locating the call in dispatch and to reporting location information to the officers in the field. Without highly accurate, detailed, and up to date mapping data would create a major challenge in the emergency response cycle.

Public Safety plays a crucial role in the day to day activities of Village of Deerfield. The Village of Deerfield Police Department believes that their daily activities help support a safe and vibrant community. A crucial operational aspect of the Police Department is conducted 24 hours, 7 days a week, all year long is Dispatch. The Dispatch Department and the highly trained officers are responsible for receiving and dispatching appropriate resources for all emergency and non emergency activities in the Village. The major focus of their operation is to respond to all calls placed to 911, dispatch resources, and relay information to officers in the field. Mapping is a major factor in this operation from locating the call in dispatch and to reporting location information to the officers in the field. Without highly accurate, detailed, and up to date mapping data would create a major challenge in the emergency response cycle.

Of all the services provided by local municipalities around the world, public safety is arguably the most recognizable and widely supported. Everyone wants to feel that they are safe and that someone will respond to assist them in the case of an emergency. The Village of Winnetka traditionally has provided fire, EMS, and police protection to its residences since it was established, however, over the years, these Village departments have started to provide service to additional areas immediately outside the village boundaries through a series of public service contracts. To assist with coordinating response efforts in these service agreement areas, the fire and police departments asked the village GIS department for assistance.

Addresses play an important role in the daily activities of Village of Riverside staff whether it is for water billing information, permits, or locating a resident in case of an emergency. In addition, a physical address can serve as a link for answering such questions as what school district do I belong to or what zoning district am I in? However, obtaining this information for a specific address often requires searching through multiple spreadsheets, databases, and paper documents.

Almost every day of the week, police officers are called to the scene of a traffic accident to provide assistance. More often than not, these officers report to a street intersection rather than an address along a residential street. But how many times does a police officer report to the same intersection? Moreover, are there trends occurring for high traffic volume intersections? These were the sorts of questions the Traffic Safety Committee of the City of Park Ridge aimed to study. In addition, the committee wanted to analyze how many accidents per month were happening at each intersection. Furthermore, they needed and easy method for displaying these results to the whole committee.

To help respond to a potential community-wide emergency, most local governments have an emergency response plan in place to assist with the organization and execution of community policies and protocols. As technology has improved over the years, the City of Des Plaines started integrating Geographic Information System (GIS) into a tool for assisting with the management of an emergency event response.

In 1916, the United States created the Federal-aid Highway Program with the primary objective being the improvement of rural roads. This changed with the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1944, which authorized the first specific funds for urban highways, specifically the creation of a formula for the distribution of federal-aid funds among the primary, secondary, and urban systems. Today, there are three federal-aid systems: The Interstate Highway System, the Federal-aid Primary highway system (FAP), and the Federal-aid Secondary highway system. The Federal-aid Secondary highway system is broken into secondary non-urban (FAS) and secondary urban (FAU). The interstate system consists of routes connecting and running through and around major urban centers. The FAP consists of a system of connected main highways, while the FAS are composed of principal secondary and feeder routes. Both aid systems are chosen by state highway departments and local officials, but are subject to approval by the Bureau of Public Roads. Having roads designated as federal-aid means that the federal and state governments provide funds and take care of repairs instead of the community in which the road is located. This allows the local government to spend money in other areas.

The Village of Wheeling fire department created fire districts for the purpose of sectioning off the village so that village firefighters would have a better idea where an incident was located and what station would be the closest for response. The districts were sectioned off by neighborhood and each one was given a four digit reference code. The fire department then created maps of each district showing the streets that were located within each one. While the maps were effective at first, they eventually became outdated due to changes in the village. The fire department asked the GIS Specialist to create an updated Fire District Map Book that would also include features not available in the previous version.

The Insurance Services Organization (ISO) is an advisory organization that evaluates risk with the objective to help their customers measure, manage, and reduce risk. In a government setting, ISO will gather information that is often used in insurance underwriting. Therefore they will evaluate how well a municipality manages and mitigates risk and those factors directly affect residents and their insurance premiums.