Micro-Mapping at West Yorkshire Police

Micro Mapping

West Yorkshire Police Install Micro-Mapping

West Yorkshire Police are the latest Police Force to purchase the MicroColour Map Display System. A mapping system based on Cibachrome® colour microfiche - an archival quality, high resolution colour transparency of approximately 4x6 inches in size.

MicroColour International were invited to give a presentation at the Force H.Q. in Wakefield. The equipment they showed demonstrated that MicroColour Map Display System could simply replace any paper map required by the force. The following points were taken into account during the deliberations:-

Cost Effective. Low start up costs, more units could be added when required.
Ease of Use. Fast access to any of the maps possible by simply inserting the relevant microfiche into the map-reader.
Customised Microfilming. The microfilming of maps was not restricted to standard published maps. It was possible to combine sections from any map onto a single microfiche.
Space Saving. 'Full-Frame' microfiche format was capable of reducing map storage space requirement by over 95%.
Archival Quality. The use of Cibachrome colour microfilm would ensure that the map images would not fade under continuous projection.
Flexible System. Various hardware equipment could be used to display the microfiche maps.

Evaluation

Before a final decision could be made to purchase the MicroColour Map Display System, West Yorkshire Police wanted to evaluate the use of such a mapping system in their day-to-day operations. Funds were allocated to purchase two MicroColor Model 6100 map readers and to have various scale, 1:50,000 1:25,000 and 1:10,000, sample maps microfilmed.

After a trial period of several months, the OS 1:10,000 scale Street Plans proved to be the most useful for operational purposes. At that stage the decision was taken to go ahead with the micro-mapping project.

West Yorkshire Police, a metropolitan police force with a large population of 2,021,094, cover a geographical area of 503,281 acres. To cover their force area they needed 107 OS 1:10,000 scale Street Plans. The Area Control Room Project Team identified and collated the maps before handing them over to MicroColour International for microfilming.

Customising of Maps

To minimise the number of microfiches required MicroColour International 'cut & pasted' the maps together to produce just nineteen 42" x 61" large maps. Also to make the black and white OS 1:10,000 Street Plans easier to read, it was decided to have them coloured in the same colour scheme as the OS Landranger Series 1:50,000 scale maps.

The customising of the Street Plans involved the colouring of Motorways, A-Roads, B-Roads, some secondary Roads, Parks, Rivers, Forests, Reservoirs and Lakes. This work was carried out by MicroColour International as an in-house project.

Sgt. Jim Pinder, the officer leading the mapping project, visited the premises of MicroColour International to inspect and approve of the colouring of the maps. At that stage it was decided to overlay the following additional information onto the maps:-

Force Boundaries
Sub-Divisional Boundaries
Beat Boundaries
Check Points
Places of special interest

The original objective was to use minimum colours to give maximum information on the maps. Therefore the overlaying of additional information without making the maps difficult to read was not an easy task. In the end the best compromise was reached by using a grey colour to mark the Beat Boundaries and the Check Points. Fluorescent colours were used for Force and Sub-Divisional boundaries. Places of special interest were highlighted in blue, green and red according to their level of importance.

After microfilming, the paper maps were encapsulated in clear film and returned to the Force H.Q.

With the MicroColour Map Display System every Area Control Room operator in the West Yorkshire Police Force now has access to colour Street Plans covering the whole of West Yorkshire.