UC Davis Daily Police logs

Daily Police LogsThe Clery Act requires the UC Davis Police Department to provide public access to the department's crime log, and to this end, we have taken proactive steps to ensure crime data is readily available. On this page you will find our crime log posted by month and day. Printed copies are available in our lobby on the Davis and Sacramento campuses.

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The current UC Davis Daily Police Logs provides public access to the department's crime log posted by month and day. However, it's only currently in the form of non-downloadable PDFs in one of two formats.

For police-taken reports, it's in: "Case Number, Location, Report Date, Time, Date Occurred, Time Occurred, Type, Dispo, Arrestee, and DOB."

For online reports, it's in: "Case Number, Location, Date Reported, Time, Type, and Dispo."

The current UC Davis Daily Police Logs only provide addresses, not building names, in the location column. This makes it difficult to pinpoint where exactly the reported crimes occurred. To improve this, we plan to associate these crimes with specific buildings, particularly on an interactive map of Davis. This GIS project aims to enhance the clarity and usefulness of the crime data by providing a visual representation linked to identifiable campus locations.

PYTHON AUTOMATION

Using Python, the process of converting PDFs into a format suitable for visualization in ArcGIS Pro was automated. Initially, PDFs were downloaded and transformed into Excel files. Subsequently, these files underwent cleanup operations such as modifying column names for better readability and rectifying missing data using Panda data frames. Once cleaned, the data was exported back into Excel and CSV formats, making them compatible as standalone tables within ArcGIS' coding environment, ArcPy. With the data structured in this manner, further geospatial analysis and visualization could be performed seamlessly within ArcGIS Pro.

In the ArcGIS Pro platform, Python automation played a crucial role in enhancing efficiency by automating the creation of points based on crime data locations, excluding unclear or erroneous entries. Additionally, buildings were assigned yearly tallies reflecting the number of reported crimes in their vicinity. Manual processing of such large datasets, with hundreds of entries monthly, would be exceedingly laborious. However, leveraging Python allowed for rapid execution of these tasks, reducing processing time from hours to mere minutes. This automation not only streamlines data handling but also facilitates timely analysis and visualization within the ArcGIS Pro environment, significantly enhancing productivity in geospatial workflows.

NEXT STEPS

Moving forward, there's a better way to link the Daily Police Reports GIS map and the police department through the use of ArcGIS FieldMaps. There's currently room for error for the locations of the Police Logs as they're being appended to a general location based on the listed address. Alternatively, UC Davis Police can utilize ArcGIS FieldMaps to fill out a form incorporating all the normal data: Case Number, Location, Report Date, Time, Date Occurred, Time Occurred, Type, Dispo, Arrestee, and DOB. That FieldMaps data can then be uploaded to a database and sent into an Excel, solving two problems at once.

When the project is completed, the data will be published online. After discussing with the Police Department, it seems unlikely that collaboration is feasible, and it's not advisable for this data to be publicly accessible for self-storage purposes. However, I believe the data holds significant value, particularly for urban planning.

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