CONTACT: Susan Harding, Acting Public Information Officer, 301-600-1385
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: August 18, 2006

SpiresGIS NOW AVAILABLE
ON CITY’S WEBSITE

Frederick, Md. --- The City of Frederick proudly presents the availability of the SpiresGIS online mapping system to staff and public. SpiresGIS is the City of Frederick’s online geographic information system. It provides staff and the public with instant access to the City’s geographic information. SpiresGIS is the culmination of a three-year undertaking to develop a City enterprise GIS. It is another way that GIS provides municipal services more effectively and efficiently, while saving time, money, and resources.

Currently, the City has two sites available to the public. These are the SpiresGIS General Map and the SpiresGIS Crime Map for Part I Offenses.

The SpiresGIS General Map includes a property layer with such information with addresses, land area, zoning, overlays, school districts, NAC, assessment information link, and a plat link. There are also several other layers that can be viewed including zoning, floodplain, NACs, and 2003 Aerial. Staff and the public will be able to zoom to either an address, subdivision or a user defined area that is of interest to them.

In collaboration with the City Police Department, staff has developed the SpiresGIS crime website so staff and the public can visually view the City’s Part I offenses. Interested residents, current residents, and staff can view patterns of crime near an address, in a subdivision or in the entire city. Data is available for the year to date and will be updated monthly. Staff and the public will be able to zoom to either an address, subdivision or a user defined area that is of interest to them.

Concerning public access crime mapping, Chief Kim C. Dine of the Frederick Police Department said, “Providing information to inform our citizens is foremost in our philosophy of community policing. Providing crime maps to the public has been a major goal pursuant to this philosophy. Matt Bowman, GIS Administrator, and his GIS Department have performed an exceptional service in creating these, and making them available to all.”

More GIS websites will be available in the near future. Press releases will be issued upon their creation.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT:
Matt Bowman, GIS Administrator, 240-629-6209
Bill Douwes, Crime Analyst FPD, 301 631-2797

Please visit the SpiresGIS webpage by going to www.cityoffrederick.com and clicking SpiresGIS or going directly http://www.cityoffrederick.com/departments/GIS/index.htm.