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Hays County Citizen Connect
Citizen Connect is an online tool that allows Hays county citizens to view incidents and arrests occurring in the Hays County area, including San Marcos, Kyle, Buda, and Texas State University. Citizens are able to create alerts for certain areas or incidents and will be notified of when crime occurs in their area. A link to the interface is provided below, as well as quick how-to guides and FAQ.
Please note: The interface is regularly updated, but has a 48-hour delay to allow records to be verified and complete. Each agency's respective Records Department works Monday-Friday, 8am-5pm. This will effect the verification process in the early parts of the week.
Do I have to create an account?
You will only have to create an account if you want to receive alerts. Otherwise you are able to view all incidents or arrests of your choosing through the filters in the left-hand pane of the Citizen Connect Home Page.
Why do I see incident information from multiple police departments?
The cities of San Marcos, Kyle, and Buda, as well as Hays County and Texas State University have partnered using the same Records Management System to house and organize crime-related databases. This not only makes multiple sources of data available to the public, but also streamlines communication and information exchanging across departments to allow us to better serve our respective and neighboring communities.
Am I seeing live incident data?
No, you are not seeing live data. Because the circumstances of an incident can change between 911 call centers receiving a call and officers arriving on scene, live data will not be consistent. To help alleviate this, Citizen Connect is on a 48-hour lag to ensure that all displayed incidents are consistent and verified with each respective department.
Why am I not receiving any alerts?
If you scheduled a location-based alert, you may have not specified the jurisdiction or incident type. Please reference your alert (in the alert tab on the top right-hand tab on your citizen connect home page labeled Alert) and ensure that jurisdiction and incident type is included or selected. Also, you may want to check your schedule of release and ensure that it is the timeframe you are expecting, either daily, weekly, or monthly.
When I search, can I view a list of the incidents or arrests outside the map?
Yes, to view a static list of the incidents or arrests of interest, click on the download icon on the top right corner of the Citizen Connect homepage after your appropriate filters are applied. Peruse the Navigation Help section for an explanation of the tools available in Citizen Connect.
Why can I not see sex offense information in the incident filter?
Sex offense data, child crimes data, and some medical or mental health data will not be able to be tracked by the public. These are sensitive crimes and for the sake of our victim's privacy they will not be shared in a public forum.
I cannot seem to create alerts on my phone, is that right?
Unfortunately, in its current form, alerts are not able to be created on a mobile device. You will need a desktop computer. However, you are still able to view incidents and arrests, as well as manipulate the map.
Where can I get additional information on incidents or arrests?
Arrest information is public-record and available in the Hays County Jail Dashboard and Courts Records website. Incident information will need to requested from an open records request from each respective department. However, please know that without an official, criminal justice-related purpose, some information will need to be redacted before it is released.
Can I download the guides for getting alerts set up?
Yes, at the end of each guide, there is a link that leads you to a pdf version of the instructions. Once downloaded, it is easily saved or printed per your needs.
The Citizen Connect homepage is separated into three major categories: the Filter pane, the Map, and The Overview/Data Pane.
The Filter Pane:
The filter pane is on the left side of the map and allows you to narrow down the information displayed by location and/or incident/arrest type.
1. Map Options
Map options allows you to narrow down by location. Namely, select the magnifying glass and isolate—from the drop-down—whether you want to display City Limit boundaries or Police Response Areas. There are 13 options for City limit boundaries and 6 options for Police Response Areas. If you want to isolate the City of Kyle, select the City Limits filter and then select Kyle via the checkmark next to it. In the picture below, Buda and Kyle Police Department response areas are isolated through the Police Response Area drop-down. The map will narrow down on the selected areas as soon as the check-mark is clicked.
2. Data Options
In data options, you are able to narrow down the data presented further by isolating the date range and type of type displayed.
A. Date Range. Using the drop-down next to date range, you are able to either manually choose a “to-from” range or use a rolling filter. For example, selecting the past 6 month.
Please note that each department became a partner at different times, which may skew the data. For instance, Hays County Sheriff’s office logged on in 2020, but San Marcos Police Department did not log in until 2022. Therefore, Hays County will display information from 2020, but San Marcos Police Department will not. This does not mean that the data does not exist, but that it does not exist in the current program.
B. Data. In the data section, there are three options: “Select all”, “Incidents”, and “Arrests”. When clicking select all, this will present all incidents and arrest from all partnering agencies. If you have the map narrowed by location, it will present all applicable data from those specific locations. If you would like to only see incidents, ensure that the check mark by incidents is the only option selected. If you would like to isolate further—lets say to only show burglaries—go into incidents, select your jurisdiction, then select your category. In the example above, Kyle and Buda are selected, meaning that to show all applicable responses, Kyle and Buda Police Departments should both be selected. To do this, first go into Kyle Police Department and select all applicable burglaries, then go into Buda Police Department and do the same. The result will be all burglaries responded to by both Kyle and Buda within Kyle and Buda police response areas. Feel free to play with these incident and arrest types to get a feel for the data structure.
Please note that if incident or arrest data is narrowed down, a dash will appear to the left of the Incidents or Arrest tab. If a checkmark appears, the default is select all within the tab.
Follow this link to a downloadable version of these instructions
The Citizen Connect homepage is separated into three major categories: the Filter pane, the Map, and The Overview/Data Pane.
The Map Pane:
The Map pane is on the center of the home page and houses the map and map tools. It also houses the button that allows you to create an alert.
1. Map
The map is where most of the data is presented. This program is map-based, meaning that all the data is based on an address of occurrence. This allows for visualization of the data. It also means that if the location of an incident or arrest is not verified, the data is not displayed. In the overview pane, you are able to download this missing data and include it in your search, but know that it will not be able to be included in the map nor is it able to be grouped by location.
2. Map Toggle Tool
When your mouse passes through the map, a hand should show up, allowing you to click and drag or zoom in and out (if you are on a desktop computer), however, if you do not have this capability, there exists a map toggle tool on the bottom left-hand corner of the map that will allow you to open the map in full-screen, moving the center of the map, or zooming in and out.
Please note that if you are on a mobile device and having difficulty with the map or isolating incidents, try accessing Citizen Connect on a desktop as some of the tools are not mobile-friendly.
3. Re-Center
When you narrow down on the map, you may notice a “Re-center” button appear. This allows you to reset the map quickly so that you can readjust your search. It does not remove the data or any filters you have selected, but it does reset your view of the map to be centered on the entire area of Hays County and surrounding Police response areas.
4. Search Bar
Using the search bar allow your to isolate specific addresses, specific regions, or specific incident types. When you click on the search bar, a drop-down will appear underneath it. If you want to search by a specific address or location type, you will need to select place. If you want to search by a specific incident type, you will need to select pin (however, for this tool, you will need to know each department’s offense codes—because of this, we recommend that you isolate by incident in the filter pane). If you want to search by police response area, you will need to select region. This tool is most helpful when trying to isolate by address work location type. For example, in the photo below, you may want to isolate Walmart locations in the Kyle and San Marcos area.
5. Draw Tool
The map also has a draw tool. This allows you to isolate an area of interest that may not be identifiable by address only. For example, below is a photo of using the draw tool to isolate the area around Lehman High School in Kyle. Follow in the instructions on the top ribbon to make points in the boundary and double click when done. The boundary will turn red when made.
TIP: when doing this to identify incidents or arrests, choosing select all in the incident or arrest filter will be the most fruitful option for pulling data in such a small area. This will ensure that all applicable activity is provided.
6. Create Alert
One of the key features of Citizen Connect is the ability to create alerts. In the example below, Walmart in Buda was isolated using the Place search bar option. In the filter pane, data was isolated by date to present January-May of 2023, and all arrests selected. By doing so, all arrests in the area of the Buda Walmart that occurred from January-May of 2023 will be displayed in the map. Now, lets say, this is an area you would like to track in terms of arrest activity. By selecting create alert, you are able to receive alerts of arrests occurring in this area. The date range does not matter in this case, as the alerts you receive will be based on your chosen schedule and when data is verified and added to Citizen Connect by respective departments. Please see the other guides for helpful how-tos on setting up incident- and location-based alerts.
7. Filter Log Bar
The final piece of the Map Pane is the filter log bar at the top of the map. This will illustrate what filters are in place on the current data stream. For instance, in the map below, you can see it is isolated by place and arrest. This is because, the search is based on Walmart in Buda and arrests occurring in that area. If your filters get increasingly complicated, they will display on this bar as a tracking device so that you are able to track the filters placed on the current map.
Follow this link to a downloadable version of these instructions
The Citizen Connect homepage is separated into three major categories: the Filter pane, the Map, and The Overview/Data Pane.
The Overview/Data Pane:
The Overview/Data pane is on the left of the map and houses the map and map tools. It also houses the button that allows you to create an alert.
1. Overview Tab
The overview tab provides an introduction to Citizen Connect, as well as a list of each of the partnered agencies, including Hays County Sheriff’s Office, San Marcos Police Department, Kyle Police Department, Buda Police Department, and Texas State University Police Department. Under each department’s name are contact numbers for the agency’s non-emergency line and Records Division. Citizen Connect also presents various links and contact information for any relevant City entities.
2. Auto Map Update
This tool should only need to used if you have been in the system for several days and have not seen updated incidents. This should not be a concern however, as the system is programmed to automatically update information with a 48-hour lag. If incidents are not updated from the last 48-hours, however, please notify an entity in the partnership so that it may be addressed.
3. Print Option
The print option provides a printable table of all the selected incidents or arrests. When printing incidents, this will provide the category of the incident, the incident number, the incident date/time, the incident agency, and the incident disposition (or what occurred upon response). The picture below presents an example of this printable page when printing incidents.
4. Download Option
The download option provides an excel download of all the selected incidents or arrests. When downloading arrest information, this will provide the category of the arrest, the agency that conducted the arrest, the incident number attached to the arrest, the date/time of the arrest, the arrest number, and the crime description. If there is any missing information in the arrest download, this is most likely because the offense or arrest is still being verified by the agency in question. The picture below presents an example of this download.
5. Data Tab
Next to the Overview tab is a Data tab. This tab will only appear when data is actually in the map; otherwise the tab is hidden. The data tab allows you to check trends of the filtered data, quickly look through the available arrests to look at, and compare filtered searches. An interesting tool that this tab provides is a Compare tool. Once data is filtered in, selecting the Compare tool will allow you to compare this data from a specified timeframe. For instance, if you isolate arrest trends from over the last 3 months in a selected area, by selecting the Compare tool, this will automatically run a time-based comparison between the last three month timeframe and the prior three month timeframe. From here, you can see how the trends overlap overtime and how many more or less arrests there were from timeframe one to timeframe two.
Unverified Location Data. Citizen Connect is a map-based tool, meaning that it is dependent on the location of the incident or arrest to provide data. In some cases, addresses are unable to be verified automatically given small mistakes in inputting an address or system malfunctions. Citizen Connect does take this into consideration, however, and provides a missing address data excel download. Please note that this data will not be able to be grouped by location, meaning that if you want to perform a search of incidents or arrests based on a narrowed location (ex. Neighborhood) the unverified location data will not be tied to that area specifically. Adding in that data will need to come with the caveat of an unverified location.
Follow the link to a downloadable version of these instructions
1. To create an account, go to the main page and select Sign In
2. A Socrata window will open, select Sign up
in the top right-hand corner of the new page
3. Complete the instructions and input your email address, display name, and password
Follow this link to a downloadable version of these instructions
Incident-based alerts will notify you when a specific incident occurred or crime was reported. You will be able to go through a list of incident types and select one or multiple incident types to choose from. To set up these alerts, be sure to create an account first as Socrata will prompt you to log-in when creating an alert. For help on setting up these alerts, follow the instructions below:
1. To successfully create an alert, you must be in the Socrata homepage and preferably logged into your account
2. Manage your filters using the information on the left-hand side of the page. You are able to select as many or as few filters as you wish
3. If you want to receive alerts for all incidents and arrests in Hays County, simply click Select All
and Create Alert
4. If you want to receive alerts for particular incidents, you must first select a jurisdiction of your choosing. For instance, displayed in the picture below is a selection of Texas State University. Please note that if any of the checkmarks next to a jurisdiction are black, they are selected. If there is a black line to the left of the jurisdiction, that is notating that some incident types are selected within the jurisdiction. In these cases, you will be receiving additional alerts for those jurisdictions.
5. Then, select the incident you are interested in receiving alerts on. For instance, displayed in the picture below is a selection of all Accidents to receive alerts for all accidents occurring within Texas State University jurisdiction. Please note that a black arrow indicates selection, but a grey arrow indicates no selection and data will not be displayed.
6. Repeat this selection for other jurisdictions if desired
7. When satisfied with the parameters of the alert, select Create Alert
8. Select Create your own
, and provide a name and select how often you would like to receive these alerts
9. Once saved, you can go to the Alerts
tab on the top right-hand corner of the home page to manage your alerts. From here, you can rename them, delete them, or view them on the map as a saved search
TIPS:
1. If you want all incidents in a single jurisdiction, the easiest way to do this is to select all, then expand your incident and arrest options, remove other jurisdictions. This keeps all incidents and arrests for the remaining jurisdiction.
2. If you don’t select any incidents or arrest options when creating an alert, you will not receive any alerts.
Follow this link to a downloadable version of these instructions
Location-based alerts will notify you when a specific incident occurred or crime was reported in a certain location, such as an individual address, block range, or subdivision. You will be able to create you own boundary, using the draw tool in the Citizen Connect home page. To set up these alerts, be sure to create an account first as Socrata will prompt you to log-in when creating an alert. For help on setting up these alerts, follow the instructions below:
1. To successfully create a location alert, you must be in the Socrata homepage and preferably logged into your account.
2. First, zoom to the general location of interest using the map tools on the bottom left-hand portion of the map (or you can simply use your mouse to zoom in and out).
3. Once the map is narrowed down to the general location of interest, use the "Draw" tool at the top of the map to begin creating a boundary around the targeted area. For instance, in the photo below, the Blanco Gardens neighborhood in San Marcos was the location of interest.
4. Once you are satisfied with the drawn area, double click to set the alert boundary.
5. Do not forget to adjust your filters on the left-side of the map. This will determine what jurisdiction or incident information is provided in your alert. If you need assistance on this, please refer to the How to Create Incident-based Alerts with Citizen Connect. Because the location-based search is used, simply selecting all on the filter under Data will provide alerts on all reported criminal activity in the area. Please note that if no filter information is selected, no information will be shared via alerts.
6. When satisfied with the parameters of the alert, select "Create Alert".
8. Select "Create your own," and provide a name and select how often you would like to receive these alerts.
9. Once saved, you can go to the "Alerts" tab on the top right-hand corner of the home page to manage your alerts. From here, you can rename them, delete them, or view them on the map as a saved search.
Follow this link to a downloadable version of these instructions
Hays County Citizen Connect is a new online tool, that is connected with a large police records system housed within Hays County and shared among surrounding communities. Because of the size of this tool, the data it presents, and how new this interface is, some incidents may not be displayed or may display incorrect information. The vested law enforcement agencies will check the interface regularly to address the aforementioned or newly identified limitations. Check back for updated offense and arrest information. Given the evolutionary nature of crime data, some information may be updated to reflect more offense-consistent information.
Webpage updated 08/18/2023