Carrollton, Texas Police Use GIS to Reduce Crime and Manage Community Events

Carrollton, Texas—a city of approximately 132,000 residents in the US Dallas-Fort Worth metro area—offers a unique blend of small-town charm and big-city amenities. Just outside Dallas, it’s home to a vibrant, diverse community with a historic downtown, thriving small businesses, and growing corporate campuses.

But like many expanding suburbs, Carrollton faces evolving public safety challenges—from motor vehicle break-ins and residential burglaries to retail theft in busy commercial centers.

To stay ahead, the Carrollton Police Department (CPD)—consisting of 178 sworn officers, 55 civilian staff, and led by Police Chief Roberto Arredondo—turned to geographic information system (GIS) technology to modernize its approach to crime reduction and event planning. With a mix of residential neighborhoods, commercial centers, and major commuter routes, the city needed a smarter, data-driven way to allocate resources and keep both residents and visitors safe.

The city also hosts numerous community events, which add complexity to public safety planning and operations. In September of 2024, Carrollton hosted its first LIV Golf tour event at Maridoe Golf Club. The tournament—an alternative to the PGA Tour—served as a proving ground for CPD’s new GIS-powered strategies, demonstrating how technology could enhance both day-to-day policing and large-scale event operations.

In 2023, Chief Arredondo introduced a data-driven policing model to address crime protectively across Carrollton. He tasked Assistant Chief Caleb West of the Investigative Services Bureau with designing a crime reduction strategy tailored to Carrollton’s needs. Drawing inspiration from the Dallas Police Department’s (DPD) Targeted Action Area Grids (TAAGs), the CPD adopted a similar approach using ArcGIS Online, a cloud-based GIS platform, later transitioning to ArcGIS Enterprise for greater scalability and advanced features.

The TAAG model overlays a grid over the city and aggregates crime incidents into grid cells, helping identify high-priority enforcement zones. To support the initiative, Chief West enlisted the CPD Crime Analysis Unit, led by Sergeant Sheldon Blackwell and crime analyst Bailey Beasley. The team used ArcGIS Pro—a professional desktop GIS application for spatial analysis and mapping—and ArcGIS for Power BI, which integrates GIS data directly into Microsoft Power BI dashboards. Their goal was to analyze local crime data with a focus on property crimes such as residential burglaries, vehicle break-ins, auto thefts, and retail theft.

In addition to the TAAG areas, the team implemented hot street analysis to pinpoint specific streets with disproportionately high crime rates. Beasley used the 80-20 analysis toolset in ArcGIS Pro to identify which streets in Carrollton were responsible for the majority of incidents.

Once the analysis was complete, the team built interactive dashboards using ArcGIS for Power BI to support weekly crime problem management meetings. These dashboards allowed command staff to interact with the data, drill into hot spots, spot trends, and identify emerging problem areas. Now, TAAG areas and hot streets are shared with the Operations Bureau, which uses the insights to deploy directed patrols in target areas.

A key component of CPD’s proactive policing strategies is Esri’s Crime Reduction Statistics solutions—a set of ArcGIS configurations designed to support place-based policing workflows. CPD decided that these would be a good fit for TAAG and adopted the Daily Activity Dashboard and Crime Reduction Statistics dashboard to monitor crime trends and guide enforcement. These tools give the CPD a clearer picture of both short- and long-term crime patterns, helping the department respond more effectively and efficiently.

Like most police departments, the CPD is responsible for keeping community events safe and secure. Special events, whether small or large, come with their own unique challenges to plan and manage. Pre-event planning was typically a manual and paper-based process that involved creating the event plan using plotted screenshots of maps, marking the document with event areas and infrastructure, and assigning personnel to shifts and locations using spreadsheets.

Briefings were delivered via slide decks or printed packets, and on the day of the event, there was typically no live operational view. If changes were needed, there was no easy way to update personnel or stakeholders in real time.

As CPD began preplanning for the city’s inaugural LIV Golf tournament in 2024, it saw an opportunity to modernize its approach to event operations. The tournament, held at Maridoe Golf Club, drew more than 50,000 fans over three days—with 20,000 on the first day alone—setting a new single-day US attendance record for LIV Golf. To prepare, CPD turned to the ArcGIS Solutions Special Event Operations configuration, which helps public safety agencies inventory events, create operational maps, monitor activities in real time, and share event plans with stakeholders.

Using this solution, the CPD created a digital event plan that commanders could mark up and use during the tournament. The live map included event zones, staging areas, parking enforcement areas, roadblocks, officer posts, and routes to nearby hospitals. Each day of the event, the map displayed live traffic and weather, and all assigned personnel could access the plan on their mobile devices—ensuring that everyone was aligned and informed.

The new system worked well. Since the LIV event, the CPD has adopted this ArcGIS software-based solution as part of its operational planning for multiple special events, improving coordination, situational awareness, and overall public safety.

Since launching the TAAG model and GIS-based solutions in June 2023, CPD has seen a measurable reduction in crime. By the end of 2023, Carrollton had already recorded a significant 10 percent decrease in property crime, and this downward trend has continued through 2025.

Importantly, the agency has fully embraced GIS. Targeted patrols in TAGG zones and along identified hot streets have become a core part of CPD’s operations. Each week, commanders meet to discuss their sector and use the Daily Activity Dashboard to review issues, create new TAAGs for problem areas, and retire TAAGs as needed. The Crime Reduction Statistics dashboard provides visibility into both short- and long-term trends, helping leadership track statistically significant changes in crime patterns.

GIS technology has not only enhanced CPD’s crime reduction strategies but also improved how the department manages special events. Looking ahead, the agency plans to utilize other ArcGIS technologies to further enhance security and operations. This includes integrating real-time officer tracking and improving field-based information sharing to support both day-to-day operations and large-scale event coordination.