How An App Enabled Oklahoma Highway Patrol To Save Lives, Time, And Money

When the Oklahoma Highway Patrol (OHP) joined the search for a man suspected of killing a sheriff’s deputy earlier this year, the law enforcement agency used ArcGIS Online and Workforce for ArcGIS to properly position more than 100 troopers as the dragnet tightened.

“We were able to keep track of all of [the troopers] with Workforce for ArcGIS,” said Captain Ronnie Hampton, commander of the Futures, Capabilities, and Plans Division of OHP. Hampton spoke about his agency’s use of Esri technology during the Esri National Security and Public Safety Summit that was held last July in San Diego, California.

All 800 OHP troopers have downloaded the Workforce for ArcGIS mobile app onto their smartphones and enabled location tracking, letting dispatchers see each on-duty officer’s GPS location on a customized Dispatch Map in ArcGIS Online. Workforce for ArcGIS is included at no extra cost in an ArcGIS Online organizational subscription. The troopers and about 90 dispatchers have ArcGIS Online accounts.

Hampton said that during the manhunt for the shooting suspect on April 18, 2017, incident commanders could see where each officer was stationed in real time on the map. That locational information helped the commanders decide where to place troopers that were needed for the operation while a search perimeter was set up. “We were able to send in over 100 troopers, sealing off a two-mile area,” Hampton said. “We could see the boots on the ground.” The Oklahoma County Sheriff’s SWAT team captured the suspect later that day after several hours.