Traffic Reporting Portal: Chandler PD
The Arizona State University Artificial Intelligence Cloud Innovation Center, powered by Amazon Web Services (AWS), partnered with the Chandler Police Department to develop a cloud-based proof of concept (POC) aimed at modernizing the way traffic complaints are collected, managed, and analyzed. The initiative focused on improving both public engagement and internal efficiency by centralizing data collection, automating workflows, and enabling real-time insights through AI-powered tools.
Problem
Prior to the collaboration, Chandler PD received complaints through various channels—online forms, phone calls, and internal notes—making it difficult to track trends and act on repeat violations. Leadership needed a centralized system that could capture, organize, and visualize data, while also simplifying the internal complaint review and response workflow.
Additionally, there was no standardized method to update complaint statuses or forward reports internally while ensuring the communication loop to residents was complete. The absence of heatmap visualizations or natural language interfaces meant staff had to manually search through data to identify actionable items.
Student Spotlight
The AI CIC is powered by ASU Student Workers. The following students were assigned to this project to develop this open-source solution in partnership with the AWS and ASU mentor team.
Role: Team Lead/ Backend Developer | | Connect with Ganesh on LinkedIn
As Team Lead and Backend Developer for the Chandler PD project, I drove the successful delivery of a complex software solution from inception to deployment. I managed project timelines, coordinated seamless client interactions-including weekly presentations and the final deployments-and architected the entire infrastructure. This included designing comprehensive architecture and sequence diagrams, selecting optimal databases tailored to user requirements, integrating external APIs for beat mapping, implementing AWS Simple Email Service, and developing the API gateway with multiple Lambda functions to ensure robust, scalable performance.
This role honed my ability to balance strategic leadership with hands-on technical execution. I proactively navigated challenges such as tight deadlines and scope creep by quickly identifying alternative solutions that kept the project on track without compromising quality or vision. By fostering a collaborative environment and maintaining a sharp focus on project objectives, I ensured backend functionalities were fully aligned with scope and delivered seamless integration with the frontend.This ensured timely, high-quality deliverables but also inspired the team to embrace innovation for future project iterations.
Role: Backend Developer for Chatbot | Connect with Matthew on LinkedIn
Experience: I worked mostly on the chatbot and its various functionalities. Specifically interesting was identifying all of the different ways that a user could ask a similar question, eg “What has happened in the last week” vs “What has happened in the last 7 days”. Some of the examples I was given weren’t possible to implement with the Lex platform, but many of them were. In terms of AWS services used, it was mainly Lex, but also: Lambda, S3, Custom Resources for the CDK, and REST API Gateway.
I feel the most significant thing I’ve learned in the project is just how difficult it is to describe what someone is looking for, even if it's for something as well defined as our project. It gives me a much better perspective on different ways that data can be retrieved or arranged. For the overall project, I felt it was very clear as to what I was supposed to develop, and I understand that a lot of work went into making the project specifications as well defined as they were from the rest of the team.
Role: UI/UX Designer | Connect with Saran on LinkedIn
Experience: In this project, I led the design of both the responsive public-facing complaint form and the internal dashboard used by officers of Chandler PD. I conducted stakeholder interviews to understand functional requirements, mapped out user flows, and created wireframes and high-fidelity prototypes in Figma. I worked closely with developers to ensure seamless handoff and implementation, adjusting designs to accommodate technical constraints while maintaining clarity and usability across screen sizes.
This project gave me the opportunity to design for real-world civic impact, where user experience directly influenced public engagement and operational efficiency. I learned how to translate complex processes into intuitive interfaces, align with cross-functional teams under tight timelines, and communicate design decisions clearly with both technical and non-technical stakeholders.
Role: UI/UX Designer | Connect with Arpita on LinkedIn
Experience: Contributing to Chandler PD’s traffic complaint system at ASU CIC was one of the most rewarding challenges.
I led the frontend development, handling everything from the public-facing form to the internal complaint resolution dashboard.
The project pushed me to work across domains—integrating authentication systems, deploying to the cloud, and covering five core features in just a few weeks. It was a fast-paced, collaborative effort that taught me not just technical skills, but also how to think on my feet and empathize with the officers who work hard to keep Chandler safe.
Approach
The team built three major components:
- An AI ChatBot designed to assist Chandler PD staff by providing a quick and intuitive way to access information and streamline their workflow.
- A responsive public-facing complaint form, allowing Chandler residents to report traffic complaints quickly and accurately from desktop or mobile devices.
- An internal complaints portal and dashboard, enabling Chandler PD staff and admins to view, filter, manage, and respond to reports using tools like heatmaps, status updates, and email forwarding.
The solution was powered by several key AWS services:
- AWS Amplify for deploying the frontend interface
- API Gateway + AWS Lambda for secure API interactions
- Amazon DynamoDB for storing complaint records
- Amazon Lex for natural language queries through a chatbot
- Amazon Simple Email Service (SES) for verified email forwarding
- ArcGIS for beat-level mapping and complaint heatmaps
The portal features role-based access: officers can view and filter complaints, while admin users can update statuses, add notes, and trigger email responses. A chatbot interface enables natural language queries—such as “Show me complaints from beats 2 and 4 this week”—to speed up internal workflows.
Industry Impact
This solution equips Chandler PD with an automated, centralized platform to manage traffic complaints more efficiently. By visualizing violation trends through heatmaps and enabling real-time insights via chatbot queries, the department can now better allocate resources, track performance, and enhance transparency with the community. The tool simplifies both citizen reporting and internal response—transforming how the department addresses its top public concern.
"I'm absolutely impressed with the work of the ASU students and the collaboration with Amazon. This project will not only help us better organize and track complaints, it will also allow us to improve customer service, identify problem areas through stronger data analysis, and take a more proactive approach to keeping our community safe."
Lt. Dan McQuillin, Chandler Police Department
“The collaboration between the AWS/ASU CIC, the City of Chandler GIS team, and the Chandler Police Department’s Traffic Unit, Crime Analysis and IT groups was outstanding. We were fortunate to have this project accepted—outsourcing the work to a vendor would have cost hundreds of thousands of dollars. The team takes pride in knowing that police agencies across the country will benefit from this open-source solution.”
Ernie Corral, Project Manager, City of Chandler Police Department Technology Division
Application
The architecture and user-centered design of this project can easily be adapted by other municipalities looking to modernize complaint intake and case tracking systems. Whether used for code enforcement, noise complaints, or utility reporting, the combination of automated dashboards, role-based access, and AI-powered insights offers broad applicability across public sector service
Supporting Artifacts
| GitHub | Click here |
Next Steps
The Chandler Police Department team is taking this solution into production in their own AWS account. This solution will be used by the team addressing traffic complaints in the city.
About the ASU CIC
The ASU Artificial Intelligence Cloud Innovation Center (AI CIC), powered by AWS is a no-cost design thinking and rapid prototyping shop dedicated to bridging the digital divide and driving innovation in the nonprofit, healthcare, education, and government sectors.
Our expert team harnesses Amazon’s pioneering approach to dive deep into high-priority pain points, meticulously define challenges, and craft strategic solutions. We collaborate with AWS solutions architects and talented student workers to develop tailored prototypes showcasing how advanced technology can tackle a wide range of operational and mission-related challenges.
Discover how we use technology to drive innovation. Visit our website at ASU AI CIC or contact us directly at ai-cic@amazon.com.