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The District

October 21, 2004

I don’t know if any of you have ever watched The District on CBS, but I find it a good watch. The show is about the Metropolitan Police Department, (MPD) the police department of Washington DC. The show itself is not that impressive, but their use of current technology is. The show is centered around the new police chief, and his new weapon to fight crime - GIS. Urban planners use GIS all the time, but it’s funny to see it on a network tv show. I’ve even seen the ArcView name on the screen, so they’re using real software.

In case you’ve never heard of GIS, here’s a short primer. Geographic Information Systems are comprised of maps. They map cities, towns, townships, etc. (geography), and the data they map can contain building footprints, land uses, utilities, etc. They can also be linked to utility usage, building plans, as-built plans, crime statistics, and on and on. It is powerful software that I barely understand, and it’s exciting to see it used and respected on TV.

Posted by paul at October 21, 2004 06:54 PM

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