The Incident Location Tool (ILT) is developed and maintained by the Iowa State University (ISU) Institute for Transportation. ILT, which can be used as either an add-on interface to TraCS or a stand-alone application, is designed to enable officers to designate the location of any incident using a map.  The relevant location information (e.g., latitude, longitude, road name, etc.) is then automatically transferred to TraCS via an XML interface and populated onto the TraCS form. The software is flexible enough to work with the digital maps your agency has available to it.  Additionally, ILT can operate with commercially available mapping data such as NAVTEQ or TELE-ATLAS.

The new ILT 5.0 release features a next-generation location capture environment, building on the experience and learning ISU developers gained deploying mapping software in various TraCS jurisdictions since 1999.

At the core of the new location collection environment is the Locator Puck, a virtual pointing device that the locating user can place anywhere on the map to designate the location of an incident (see an illustration of the ILT puck in the inset).   The process of locating an incident is as simple as placing the puck over a map location and pressing the “Big Red Button” at the bottom of the Locator Puck.   

Alternatively, the Locator Puck is capable of being driven entirely by a GPS device, simplifying the designation of an incident location to a single press of the puck’s “Big Red Button”.  In this scenario, the Locator Puck is automatically positioned on the map using data from the GPS device, removing the need for the user to move the puck to the proper map location.

Map coordinate information can then be transferred to TraCS, and used within any TraCS form.  In addition, custom location processing functions can be run by ILT enabling any map-specific business-data to be generated by the mapping software for use in a TraCS form, or be “passed-through” to your agencies central incident repository.  For example, ILT can use incident location data to find and measure the distance to the nearest intersection and place that data in a TraCS form. 

Typically, location processing logic is developed by ISU staff working with analysts from your jurisdiction to develop a custom module deployable with ILT and TraCS at your agency.   The new version of ILT available with TraCS 10 will allow your agency to develop such logic in-house, if desired.

Other features available in the new version 5.0 release of ILT include the ability for system administrators to easily customize the look and feel of the base maps supporting the ILT, and the addition of automatic version updates to both system support libraries, and the system mapping files.   Automatic updates can be performed over a network connection, or update files can be searched for on a locally available file system, such as a CD-ROM or USB DRIVE.