Crime Mapping Symbols Thumb

I know many of you who map data for law enforcement agencies struggle with finding just the right way to symbolize your crime data. Some of you customize the Esri Crime style to meet your needs, some use simple symbols from other styles, and others design your own symbols from scratch. For a new project I'm working on, none of these options were optimal for me - I wanted a symbol set that looks modern, "pops" off the ArcGIS base maps, yet still conveys an element of the "traditional" crime symbols we're used to. Given that I have little artistic talent of my own, I enlisted the help of ESRI's Graphics Department to design a new set of crime symbols. Together, we developed a new set of 13 common crime symbols for use in Web mapping applications, but also work well in ArcGIS desktop projects.

Hopefully, many of you will get to see the symbols in action at this year's Esri User Conference, where I'll be showing maps with these symbols in the Public Safety Showcase Theater. But even better, they're available for download in a new style on the ArcGIS Resources page of Mapping Center.

For help working with style files in ArcGIS Desktop, you can check out the online help topic, "What Are symbols and styles?"

Here's a map I made with the new crime symbols in ArcMap that uses the Esri World Topographic map service from ArcGIS.com as the base map:

Crime Mapping Symbols