"The Sûreté du Québec's geomatic division has significantly improved its services using GIS to help police and civil servants enhance public safety," said James Wickson, Vice President of Sales and Professional Services, ESRI Canada.  "We look forward to working with them to drive continuous improvement in their operations."

As the provincial police force, the Sûreté du Québec's mission is to maintain peace and public order; preserve life, safety and human rights; and protect property.  SQ's operations are supported by its geomatics division, responsible for providing mapping services to 7,180 police and civil servants in the organization.  Prior to 2005, the geomatics team had five members who relied on paper maps to produce an average of 15 maps per week for various police units.  The maps are used for activities including criminal investigations, search and rescue missions, intelligence services and logistics planning for major events such as G8 conferences and Quebec City's 400th anniversary. 

To increase the geomatics division's capacity to respond to mapping requests, it worked with ESRI Canada to develop GeoSûreté, a Web-based mapping application powered by ArcIMS - a solution for delivering dynamic maps and GIS data and services over the Web.  The solution enables organizations to publish, explore and share geospatial information to accomplish tasks and improve decision making. 

The application has enabled the team to produce maps quickly and easily by leveraging one map to serve the requirements of several units. Previously, they needed to produce several maps to address each unit's request.  Using the software, the division has also extended GIS data and capabilities throughout the organization.  In a day, about 80 to 100 users create their own maps using the application.  With the success of GeoSûreté, the geomatics division has experienced a significant increase in demand for its services and the team now has 11 members. 

"GIS technology has become the backbone of our team's operations," said Frédérick Pons, Geomatics Divison Head, Sûreté du Québec.  "With ESRI Canada's solution, we have increased the speed, quality and efficiency of our mapping services.  This has raised our profile within the organization as an important support service, enabling our police and civil servants to act timely and effectively on public safety concerns."

To further enhance GeoSûreté, SQ is upgrading to ArcGIS Server, a complete server-based GIS that provides role-based access and integrated functionality for disseminating geographic data and capabilities to large numbers of users within and beyond an organization.  Scalable and interoperable, ArcGIS Server enables centralized management of geographic data and integration with other applications.  With the upgrade, the geomatics team expects to provide a more intuitive interface, faster-loading graphics and integrate more data such as road camera data into GeoSûreté.

For more information about ArcGIS Server, visit: http://www.esricanada.com/products/arcgisserver

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About the Sûreté du Québec
The Sûreté du Québec was created in 1870. It is the only Québec police organization to have jurisdiction over all of Québec and to carry out such a wide variety of mandates. It operates at all levels and in all sectors of public security, including police activities in the municipalities it serves, road safety interventions and local and provincial criminal investigations. As a national police force providing services to citizens, other police organizations and the State, the Sûreté du Québec is also a leader in specialized service delivery, especially in terms of criminal investigations and emergency measures, thanks to the expertise of its police and civilian personnel and to its use of advanced technologies. For more information, visit: http://www.suretequebec.gouv.qc.ca/

About ESRI Canada
Founded in 1984, ESRI Canada provides enterprise geographic information systems (GIS) solutions that empower businesses, governments, and educational institutions to make timely, informed and mission critical decisions by leveraging the power of geography.  The company distributes the world's leading GIS software from ESRI, Telvent Miner and Miner, Azteca Systems, and other technology partners. Headquartered in Toronto, the company serves over 10,000 customers from 16 regional offices across Canada. Information about ESRI Canada can be found at http://www.esricanada.com/.  

Media contact:
Joy Chan
PR Specialist
ESRI Canada
+1 (416) 386-6488
jchan@esricanada.com
http://www.esricanada.com/