—Keith Sandell, Florida Department of Corrections
View Presentation [PDF]
From start-up to success in about a year and the can do attitude. When the State of Florida enacted its first sexual offender residency restriction law in 1995 no one knew that it would become a model for local government ordinances currently numbering more than 130 throughout the state. As the number of sexual offenders, sexual predators, and incidences of sex crimes against children increased, so did the prevalence of local ordinances restricting the places in which they could live. At the same time that these solutions gave the appearance of increased public safety they also increased the difficulty of managing the appropriate residential placement of sexual offenders and sexual predators. The Florida Department of Corrections needed a solution and found it in GIS, but not having had any previous experience with an enterprise GIS the Department faced a very steep learning curve. Through staunch perseverance and the use of the ArcGIS Server architecture (SDE and Web Application SDK) the Department populated its database and began serving out the more than 21.4 million features, including statewide parcel data, daycares, schools, and parks, that are necessary to effectively and efficiently manage the lawful residential placement of more than 7,400 sexual offenders and sexual predators throughout Florida. Please join us as we discuss the trials and tribulations of our ascent to success in doing what many thought was impossible—creating the United States first statewide GIS for managing Sex Offender Residential Restrictions.