I know nothing about GIS, but I have what I think is a GIS problem. From spending a few hours googling my problem, I think what I need to do is perform a spatial query, but I'm not sure how to go about it.
I have some crime data (a list of specific incidents, the time date that they occurred and the address where they occurred) that I'd like to look at in relation to one particular neighborhood. I have an outline of the neighborhood on a map, which is specific enough that I could translate it into a polygon that describes the outline of the neighborhood. I'd like to filter the crime data I have to see which specific incidents happened within the bounds of this neighborhood. I think this is a spatial query, but I'm not sure.
I'm looking for some guidance on the problem in general. It appears that there are some free tools online for these kinds of things (Google Fusion Tables?) and I have access to ArcGIS Desktop and MS SQL Server. I'm familiar with SQL Server, but not ArcGIS Desktop and it doesn't look like something I could pick up and learn in a day or two, but I'm not sure.
Best Answer
In ArcMap, If you look up Search in Polygon in ArcMap, you'll find this:
"Select By Location to select those features from the points layer that intersect the polygon layer"
That's found by "Selection>Select by Location" on the menu bar and it will ask for a Target layer then a Source layer and a selection method.
So the Target layer is your point layer, the Source layer the polygon layer and 'Target layer are within source layer as your spatial selection method.
Then save the output