Contents 

• Base Map
• Points with No Edit History
• Point Border Colors
• Tips & Tricks
• Questions

Base Map 

As you can see from the map, much work has already been done. But if we overlay points with no edit history (see below), over 85% of the points need to be reverified.

Sources/Usage: Public Domain. View Media Details

Points with No Edit History 

This challenge includes points with no edit history. These are points that were edited prior to the launch of our current editing application in 2016. You can identify points with no edit history by highlighting the point and then clicking on the “View History” button in the edit panel. A message saying “This feature has not been edited” will appear in the lower righthand corner. See the newsletter articles titled Yellow Points with no Edit History?? (July 2021) and Edited Points without an Edit History (March 2018) for more on this scenario.

Sources/Usage: Public Domain. View Media Details

Point Border Colors 

Not sure what each point color means? These colors are part of our tiered editing process and signal to other editors that a point has passed through the upper tiers and does not need to be edited again. Our November 2018 newsletter has an article titled Editor Roles and Point Colors that describes this process further. 

Usually, we request that volunteers focus on points with a border color that corresponds to their highest user role. However, since this challenge includes points with no edit history, volunteers can edit points with any border color if the point has no edit history.

Sources/Usage: Public Domain. View Media Details

Tips & Tricks 

A law enforcement structure is an entity staffed by sworn officers who are dispatched into the community to provide law enforcement services. Examples of law enforcement features include county sheriffs, state troopers, and city police officers, among others.    

Note that this does not include law enforcement entities whose services are confined to a specific facility (e.g., mall police, park police, school police, jail security, or courtroom security, a.k.a., bailiffs).  If you encounter a point representing any of these features that we are not collecting, please document your findings in the ‘Comment’ field and delete the point.  

See the Structures List or the Definitions page for more on what’s considered a law enforcement structure.  

Jail vs. Law Enforcement?  

During this challenge, you may come across county jails with a law enforcement symbol. We’re not actively collecting county jails, so if you find county jails coded as law enforcement, you can either skip or delete them. Any county jails that remain will be automatically filtered out of all National Map products.   

Check out this Q&A for more on how to handle county jails.  

Possible Sources  

1. The Tennessee Department of Commerce & Insurance lists law enforcement associations. Each of these associations may have a directory of law enforcement agencies throughout the state.  
   • For example, the Tennessee Sheriffs’ Association has a Sheriff Directory.   
2. The only comprehensive list of law enforcement agencies for Kentucky is on Wikipedia. Be sure to verify each entry in this list with an authoritative source before using it to update points.  
3. Police departments are often listed on local government websites under ‘Departments.’   
4. Some departments may also maintain their own Facebook pages or other social media platforms.    
   • See the newsletter article titled Social Media as an Authoritative Source (July 2020) for more on when these sites may be used to update points.   
5. Exercise caution when using information from aggregate sources that the department did not create (e.g., www.police1.com).  Information on these sources is often outdated or inaccurate.    
   • If you must rely on aggregate sources, cross-reference it with multiple sources before updating points.   

  Naming Convention  

1. When naming police departments, use the name that the department identifies with. This can be found in the department’s Mission Statement or with their address on the department’s Contact Us page.    

2. A common naming convention is <Police Department Name> followed by a <Station Name> or a <Station Number>.   The <Police Department Name> is almost always present while the <Station Name> or <Station Number> are only sometimes present.   

3. The two naming components are often separated with a hyphen. Hyphens are technically considered special characters; however, hyphens are acceptable if there is a space on each side of it.  

4. See our Name and Address Formatting Guide for additional tips on naming.   

Proper Point Placement  

1. If a point is in the wrong location, do not delete and recreate the point. Instead, click and drag it to the correct building.   

2. Our September 2018 newsletter includes an article on aerial interpretation for law enforcement. This article walks you through the process of using aerial imagery to find the correct building on which to place a point.  

Questions 

If you have any questions during the mapping process, reach out to us at nationalmapcorps@usgs.gov and someone will be happy to assist!  Thank you for all that you do, and happy mapping!