Most crime analysts will tell you the same thing: the analysis itself isn’t the hard part. It’s everything before it. Pulling incident data from CAD. Exporting from RMS. Cleaning fields so they actually geocode correctly. By the time you open ArcGIS Pro, half your morning is gone.
That’s a data access problem, and it affects nearly every agency running spatial crime analysis today.
ArcGIS Pro is a genuinely capable platform. Your agency likely already pays for it. But it wasn’t designed around law enforcement workflows specifically – and that gap between what the platform can do and what your data environment actually looks like is where analyst time disappears.
GeoShield built its ArcGIS Pro Add-In specifically to close that gap. You stay inside Esri. Your license stays. Your layers stay. And your analysts stop spending hours on prep work before the real crime analysis in ArcGIS Pro even begins.
Why ArcGIS Pro Is the Industry Standard for Crime Analysis
Over 10,000 law enforcement agencies worldwide use Esri solutions in some form. The platform handles kernel density estimation, hot spot analysis, spatial joins, temporal queries – all of it. If you know what you’re doing, you can build sophisticated crime intelligence products without ever leaving the tool.
So the argument here isn’t against Esri. It’s about getting more from what you already have.
The Hidden Gap: Powerful Tools, Scattered Data
Here’s the real bottleneck. Your call-for-service data lives in one system. Arrests in another. LPR hits in a third. Field interview cards sitting on a shared drive somewhere. Every analysis cycle starts with a manual data assembly process that nobody talks about publicly, but everyone is doing.
That’s the hidden cost. Agencies invest in GIS crime analysis tools and then underuse them because the data pipeline is a mess. A good add-in doesn’t just add features – it fixes the feed.
Core Spatial-Analysis Capabilities for Crime Analysts
It’s a purpose-built extension for law enforcement that installs directly into ArcGIS Pro and connects your GeoShield data environment to your mapping workspace in real time.
Not a separate platform. Not a new login. Just a dedicated toolbar inside the tool your analysts already know.
Query GeoShield Datasets Directly Inside ArcGIS Pro
This is the part that saves the most time. You can query incidents, patrols, field contacts, and other operational data from GeoShield without leaving ArcGIS Pro. Filter by date range, incident type, geography – whatever fits the task. Results load as a live GIS layer, ready for spatial analysis immediately.
That “two hours of data prep before analysis” problem? It gets a lot smaller, fast.
What the GeoShield Add-In Lets Your Analysts Do
Kernel Density Maps for Crime Hotspot Analysis
Kernel density crime mapping converts point-based incident data into a continuous surface showing where activity concentrates. The add-in runs these maps against your live data, lets you adjust the search radius, and produces clean output ready for patrol briefings. For identifying emerging clusters before they become established patterns, this is the tool you reach for first.
Link Analysis to Display Relationships Between Layers
Not everything is about geography. Sometimes crime pattern detection means surfacing connections – a vehicle that keeps appearing in unrelated incidents, an address that links to multiple suspects across separate cases. The link analysis capability visualizes those relationships directly on the map. It’s not a full investigative charting tool, but for quick pre-briefing pattern work, it fills a genuine gap that most Esri users don’t have natively.
Temporal Visualization with Chronological Animation
Animate your incidents chronologically and you start seeing things a static dot map never shows. A string of commercial burglaries moving east across a district over three weeks. An assault pattern tied to bar closing times on weekends. Temporal visualization is especially useful for series crime work, where the sequence of events tells you almost as much as the location does.
Choropleth Maps for District-Level Analysis
Beat commanders and command staff read choropleth maps well. The add-in builds them from your live data with proper classification and symbology – no manual joins, no extra formatting steps. You get district-level crime counts or density figures in a presentation-ready format. That matters a lot when you’re printing CompStat materials at 7:30am.
Directed Patrol Area Drawing with Notes
Draw your directed patrol areas directly on the map and attach operational notes – times of day, days of week, specific behaviors to target. Those assignments push out to officers through GeoShield’s mobile tools. It’s the full loop from analysis to deployment, built into the same workspace your analysts are already working in.
Repeat-Calls Analysis at the Same Addresses
Repeat victimization is one of the most reliable predictors of future incidents. The add-in surfaces your highest-frequency CFS addresses quickly, mapped and ready for problem-oriented policing follow-up. For agencies running any kind of focused deterrence or predictive crime analytics program, this is foundational work – and it should take minutes, not an afternoon.
Want to see these tools running on your own data? Schedule a Free Demo with the GeoShield team and walk through the add-in inside your own ArcGIS Pro environment.
From Analysis to Action: Presentation-Quality Maps for CompStat and Command
CompStat works when the maps are clear. When symbology is inconsistent or the date range doesn’t match what command asked for, you lose credibility fast – and that’s genuinely frustrating after spending two hours on prep work to get there.
The add-in produces clean, publication-ready maps directly from your analysis workflow. No copy-pasting screenshots into PowerPoint. No manual reformatting. The map you built for analysis is the map that goes in front of the chief. Same data, same layers, finished product. For RTCCs and intelligence units generating daily briefing products, that consistency is the difference between a useful command meeting and a chaotic one.
How GeoShield Fits Your Existing Esri Workflow (No Rip-and-Replace)
Your ArcGIS Pro license stays active. Your existing project files, basemaps, and layer configurations are untouched. The add-in installs as an extension and adds a GeoShield-specific toolbar. That’s it.
In law enforcement environments where procurement cycles are long and IT is cautious about new platforms, that matters. The barrier here is genuinely low compared to standalone police crime mapping platforms that require full data migration and retraining on an unfamiliar interface.
And if your agency wants more than the add-in, GeoShield offers a full public safety GIS platform: real-time dashboards, predictive analytics, mobile situational awareness, and cross-agency intelligence sharing. The add-in is one piece of a larger system, designed to grow with your agency’s needs.
Real-World Use Cases: Hotspot Policing, Repeat-Address Problem-Solving, Patrol Planning
Hotspot policing: Your district commander needs a 30-day robbery concentration map before Thursday morning’s briefing. You pull live incident data through the add-in, run kernel density analysis, identify three emerging clusters, and generate directed patrol areas with time-of-day notes – all before the meeting starts.
Repeat-address problem-solving: Your problem-oriented policing unit wants the top 25 CFS addresses for the past 60 days. The add-in surfaces them in minutes, mapped by beat. That list drives resource allocation and a community intervention meeting the following week.
Patrol planning: Before a holiday weekend, you animate the prior year’s vehicle theft data across the same dates. The pattern jumps out immediately. Directed patrol areas are drawn, notes are attached, and assignments push out through GeoShield mobile. Officers hit the field with specific targets rather than general instinct.
These are real analyst workflows. The add-in was built around them.
How GeoShield Helps With Crime Analysis in ArcGIS Pro
GeoShield connects your operational data to your Esri environment so that crime analysis in ArcGIS Pro actually starts with analysis – not data wrangling.
The add-in delivers:
- Real-time incident data access inside ArcGIS Pro, no manual exports
- Kernel density and crime hotspot analysis on live data
- Link analysis for visualizing connections across incidents and entities
- Temporal animation for series crime and patrol briefings
- Choropleth mapping for district-level CompStat products
- Directed patrol area drawing with notes and mobile deployment
- Repeat-address analysis for problem-oriented policing units
- CJIS-compliant infrastructure throughout
The platform also integrates directly with CAD, RMS, and LPR systems – so your data feeds into one queryable environment instead of arriving as separate exports every single morning.
Book a free demo – see the add-in running in your own ArcGIS Pro environment, with your own data.
Frequently Asked Questions
1. What is the GeoShield ArcGIS Pro Add-In?
It’s a law enforcement-specific extension that installs inside ArcGIS Pro and connects your GeoShield data environment to your mapping workspace in real time. It adds kernel density mapping, link analysis, temporal visualization, directed patrol drawing, and repeat-address analysis – without requiring a separate platform or replacing your existing Esri tools.
2. Do I need an existing ArcGIS Pro license to use it?
Yes. The add-in runs within ArcGIS Pro, so an active Esri license is a prerequisite. If your agency already runs ArcGIS Pro, installation is straightforward and doesn’t require any changes to your existing Esri setup.
3. What is the difference between kernel density and Getis-Ord hotspot analysis?
Kernel density estimation (KDE) produces a continuous surface showing where incidents are concentrated. It’s fast, visual, and works well for patrol briefings. Getis-Ord Gi* is a statistical method that identifies clusters and tells you whether that concentration is statistically significant rather than random variation. Use KDE for communication and operational planning; use Getis-Ord when you need analytical defensibility in formal reports or court contexts.
4. Is GeoShield CJIS compliant?
Yes. GeoShield is built to meet CJIS security requirements, including data encryption, access controls, and audit logging – a baseline requirement for any platform handling law enforcement data in the United States.
5. Can the add-in produce maps for CompStat meetings?
That’s one of its primary use cases. The add-in generates presentation-ready cartographic output directly from inside ArcGIS Pro without additional formatting steps. The maps you build for analysis are finished products suitable for command briefings, no extra work required.
Conclusion
ArcGIS Pro already has the analytical muscle. What most agencies are missing is a clean, real-time data connection that makes that muscle useful in practice. The GeoShield ArcGIS Pro Add-In fills that specific gap without touching your existing Esri setup.
The biggest obstacle to effective crime analysis in ArcGIS Pro isn’t the tools – it’s data access. The add-in solves that by connecting your GeoShield environment directly to your mapping workspace.
Kernel density mapping, link analysis, temporal animation, and repeat-address analysis are built for actual law enforcement workflows, not generic GIS use cases.
There’s no platform replacement involved. The add-in installs as an extension, your Esri license is unchanged, and your analysts are operational quickly.
Your investment in Esri law enforcement platform is already in place. Visit geoshield to book a free demo and see what your data looks like when the prep work is already handled for you.