Up-to-date information helps keep citizens safe

HALO staff monitoring cameras for suspicious activity

The High Activity Location Observation (HALO) team in the Denver Police Department monitors high-risk and high-profile areas in the city for criminal activity. These cameras help determine where a suspect went and can provide detectives with videos on activity in an area.

The ten HALO monitors cover roughly 700 calls a week from police dispatch, 500 of which are in areas that needs Denver Geographic Information Systems (GIS) to find the nearby cameras. These could be not well-known areas or are so dense that the whole area needs to be covered from all angles.

In the past, HALO kept a full list of all cameras, but did not provide it to Denver GIS due to miscommunication. Eventually, the updated lists were sent to Denver GIS every six months, yet Denver GIS and HALO would go back and forth about the information.

After taking the Peak Academy’s Green Belt training, HALO Supervisor Jesus Sierra contacted Denver GIS and created a streamlined process for updating the Halo and Public Works Traffic GIS layers. The communication also lead to more accurate placement of cameras already on the map by working with the camera contractor and providing Denver GIS with all the information they had on file. It had the added benefit of shaving roughly 20 seconds off each call, saving $3,316 in staff time.

“Since I started sending updated information as it comes in, our communication and speed has improved. This includes the Halo monitors who now feel they have more of a voice in the process as well as finding calls faster. We have seen a slight decrease in call finding time and less complaints about maps not being updated. This also had a side effect of the HALO layer having a better use for research from the crime analysts in other police districts.”

“I’m really glad I finished the Green Belt training and doing the A3. It forced me to sit down and think of a process that I can improve. I would have never thought to send the updated information to Denver GIS as it came in but my training as well as [Denver Black Belt] Chris Selle keeps telling me that it’s never efficient to wait and build large workloads when small chunks can be done along the way.”

– Jesus Sierra, HALO Supervisor

gregpeakacademy

Greg Reger coordinates behavioral economic analyses, trains and coaches employees on data analysis and visualization, supports open data initiatives, advises agencies on performance indicators, and supports other analytics offerings with Peak. Since starting with Peak Academy in 2013, he has trained over 1,000 individuals in process improvement, change management, behavioral economics, and data-driven decisionmaking. Prior to joining Peak, he worked as an ICMA management fellow with the City of Hamilton, OH, and managed contractors & performed weatherization audits with a large Chicago nonprofit. Greg holds an MPA from Syracuse University's Maxwell School and an undergraduate degree in Business (with minors in Mathematics and Religion) from Lake Forest College.