The Polaris System for Public Safety

What is Polaris?

Polaris is a Windows-based software program designed for the public safety and transportation communities. The Polaris System is modular and encompasses a variety of traffic records and other data for use in problem identification, analysis, and reporting. Polaris includes data entry, data management, and analysis tools for the professional in law enforcement, engineering, adjudication, health, and research.

As the number of Polaris users has increased since the inception of the first prototype version in 1997, Polaris has undergone continuous revision to make it more responsive and useful. It is a powerful system, but its usefulness rests in the hands of the user. top

Client Server Network Configuration

Polaris is available in a client server network configuration, which uses TCP/IP protocol to communicate between the server application and any clients. This configuration reduces an agency's network traffic and enables users to run Polaris in the office, in their vehicles, or anywhere there is a network connection including the internet. top

Immediate Data Availability

Crash, citation, and arrest information entered into Polaris, through the keyboard, pen, voice recognition, or ASCII download, is available immediately for evaluation and reporting. You may use the entire database or any portion of it for reporting and analysis. All variables are available when creating/running a report. For example, you might create subsets such as:

• All Fatal Crashes
• Fatal Crashes Involving DUI
  
• Commercial Truck Crashes
  
• All Incidents on Main Street
  
• Incidents Occurring at Night

Polaris users can use the Query feature to quickly search records by identifying variables (such as Person Name, Incident Date, Location, Incident Number, and Vehicle Tag Number), in order to locate specific events. top

Versatile and Easy to Use

A simple, graphical user interface enables you to enter data easily while stepping you through any actions needed. Information may be entered at one keyboard or through a network of computers. Polaris' extensive help file and context-sensitive help offer additional support for users. Polaris easily exchanges data with other software programs and computers; such as:

• Notebook computers
• Pen-based systems
• Scanners
• Mainframe legacy systems

Polaris supports import and export of data to a variety of formats, including tif, bmp, jpg, html, and pdf. top

Flexible Reporting

Polaris reports use easy-to-follow formats, such as:

• List - A list of all records in the file (or subset) presenting the number of variables for each record as columns that fit up to two pages wide in landscape orientation.
• One-way Table - A tabulation of the total number and percent of records matching each level of a single variable. Includes graphical and tabular output options.
• Two-way Table - A cross-tabulation of the total number and percent of records matching each combination of the levels of two variables. Includes graphical and tabular output options.
• Location Cluster - A report that prints the number of crashes at each location in the dataset. This is also sometimes known as a "Top 10 List of Locations" but is not limited to just 10 locations.
• Proxy - The Proxy report is similar to the list report. Instead of providing information about one variable from all the records, the proxy provides information about all the variables from one record.

Both the List Report and Location Cluster Report can be linked to mapping and statistical software products.

The Polaris System provides information to support numerous public safety activities including:

• Summaries by crash factors
• Officer deployment schedules
• Justifying funding for projects
• Identifying hazardous locations
• Allocating resources
• Increasing officer productivity
• Pinpointing high DUI areas
• Evaluating safe community programs

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Custom Data Formatting

The Polaris System is designed for flexibility in defining its data fields to match your information needs. A powerful scripting language provides the capability of updating your data forms and the data edits in a matter of moments. Essentially, the scripting language allows you to change and confirm your data requirements as data is being collected.

Whether it is managing your data collection forms content, modifying your edit criteria, or restricting access to certain information in the database, the Polaris System's security and scripting language puts you in the driver's seat. top

System Requirements

In order to run Polaris Version 5.0 (client/server), the following minimum system requirements must be met:

• Winsock Version 2.0 for TCP/IP
• Client: Windows 98 (2nd Ed.); 128 MB RAM; P2-333 CPU
• Server: Windows 2000 (sp3); 512 MB RAM; P3-900 CPU
• Standalone: Windows 98 (2nd Ed.); 256 MB RAM; P2-500 CPU
• 640 x 480 (16-bit color) VGA monitor or higher
• CD-ROM drive or network for installation
• 15 Megabytes storage for Polaris
• Hard disk drive storage for data is determined by the number of years of data to be kept in the Polaris database
• Any printer supported by Windows

To see how Polaris is used for field data collection, download Technical Report 99: 04-01 or contact us at whitepaper@data-nexus.com.

Click here for a product demo. top