Goal:

The goal of this project was to create a custom script tool for ESRI ArcMap. The tool I designed is called the Escape Analyzer. To tool is intended for law enforcement to use during an offender escape event from an MN state prison facility. The tool allows for the user to select the prison from where the offender has escaped and input a search radius. The output of the tool is a map showing the search area as well as a text report.

Process:

For the first part of this project, I had to write the Python script to control the tool. The script is broken into three main sections. In the first section I declared all variables and set user inputs to get variables. The section section of code delt with geo processing tools. The spatial analyst tools I used are Run, Select, Buffer, and Clip. The final section of code delt with outpt. The output includes the map of the area as well as a text report showing date/time, prison name, search radius, and all cities/counties within the search radius.

After completing the script I designed the custom script tool in ESRI ArcMap. This tool contains two user input fields including the prison name and search radius in miles. The Python script I wrote was uploaded into the tool. When the script tool is used the Python script runs the selected spatial analyst tools to produce the map and report.

Outcome:

If the script tool is run correctly it will output a map showing the search radius and a text report. Examples of this is shown in the project images section below.