[Talk-us] offline OSM viewers for Windows, for Police/Fire?

[Eric Patrick]

I'm going to enclose this article about a plane crash in Florida to help
illustrate the point I'm going to make.
https://www.news-journalonline.com/story/news/2022/08/25/2-killed-osteen-plane-crash-aircraft-took-off-spruce-creek-fly/7892521001/


The program you're seeking will be useless to patrol units and rescuers who
are looking for the victim(s) of lost or injured because of the lack of
service and roads in the area. If a victim is 10 miles from the trailhead
with a broken leg, cell service won't cover that area and the only thing
that may work is a handheld GPS unit (Garmin has a few on Amazon). Think
Rocky Mountains. An ambulance or police car won't be able to get to the
victim, a helicopter may not even be able to get to the victim either.

Something else you may want to consider as well is reaching out to the
search and rescue organizations (usually volunteers and usually a 501c
group) to see what they use and if they can be better served by OSM. Police
are usually involved for a short period of time (depending on what the
situation is) and then turn it over to the rescue organizations for the
longer term searching, instead of tying up police resources.

I'm not saying this is a bad idea, I'm merely pointing out a few other
options you may need/want to consider for this project.

Eric

On Mon, Sep 12, 2022 at 7:30 PM Greg Troxel <gdt at lexort.com> wrote:

>
> I have talked to my police department about OSM, particularly about
> using it for trails in conservation areas relating to calls for lost or
> injured hikers.
>
> For this to be useful for them, the path is to start with something that
> can run on Windows laptops in the patrols cars.  I don't use windows, so
> I'm asking for advice about which program to recommend (since I don't
> want to make a bad recommendation) to try.  (Yes, I know about OsmAnd
> and Organic Maps and have pruned them from the initial steps -- I was
> specifically asked for a Windows program.)
>
> My take on requirements:
>
>   - Free Software (I don't want to recommend anything proprietary, even
>     if zero cost, because I don't want to try to run it myself)
>
>   - can use pre-downloaded maps stored on the disk, and function without
>     internet (basic robustness for emergency use).  Maps can be updated
>     by just placing files on the computer, by an IT person, perhaps
>     after downloading them on one machine.
>
>   - can enter a marker by decimal degrees (e.g type in 42.12345 -71.67890
>     as read by dispatch; that format can be extracted from the E-911
>     system) of someone/someplace that needs help
>
>   - can display current location assuming there is some GPS device (I'm
>     unclear on that)
>
> and very desirable:
>
>   - either supports some topo/hiking style with contour lines, or can be
>     set up for a locally written style
>
> a plus for me:
>
>   - works in WINE, or not Windows only and also runs on "reasonable
>     POSIX systems" or macOS, but I expect this is already
>     overconstrained
>
> I would appreciate recommendations and especially to hear if anyone has
> been down this road and how it worked out.  Feel free to unicast reply
> if you aren't comfortable giving details in public and I can summarize
> recommendations.
>
> Thanks,
> Greg
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