Geographic Information Systems Insights

By now you have probably heard the statistic that today approximately 80 percent of all 9-1-1 calls originate from mobile phones. More and more people are forgoing wireline telephone service and are relying on mobile phone service exclusively. Indoor maps are needed to fully unlock the life-saving potential of indoor geodetic positions of mobile phones during 9-1-1 calls that the industry has worked so hard for to create.

These three words describe the current condition of El Paso-Teller County 9-1-1 Authority's GIS data. This is a drastic change from how it would have been described in 2016.

The North Texas Emergency Communications Center (NTECC) formed in 2014 by the four cities they serve, the cities of Carrollton, Coppell, Farmers Branch and the Town of Addison. The NTECC provides a high level of police, fire, and EMS services to the 250,000 residents and visitors they serve.

The Denco Area 9-1-1 District (Denco) is an emergency communication district in Texas that utilizes multiple GeoComm software solutions to overcome their unique GIS data obstacles and empower themselves with tools that simplify the completion of their daily GIS processes.

GeoComm, a leading provider of geographic information and communication systems, has been awarded a Texas Department of Information Resources (DIR) contract DIR-TSO-3441 for GeoComm’s public safety software.

In 2017, GeoComm worked with U.S. Bank Stadium and the Minneapolis Police Department to deploy and innovative new software to be used in the ESPN XGames that provided real-time information and sensor feeds into a Common Operating Picture (COP) built around 3D and indoor maps.  The system was again used in 2017 during the Twin...

In 2016 Linn County, Oregon began the process of upgrading their Computer Aided Dispatch (CAD) system. After being in a tabular CAD world for 28 years, the new CAD system was now map-centric, and reliant on the GIS data. This made it challenging to understand the impact GIS data would have as they moved into this new system. Not long after go-live in April 2017, it became evident that the address exceptions and accommodations built into the previous tabular CAD did not necessarily exist in the GIS date now in place, and this was causing some challenges. Linn County decided the quality of their GIS data needed to be assessed to identify and correct the issues they were seeing, and improve the GIS data in use in their new CAD system.

This winter marks four years since the State of Iowa and GeoComm began working together to assess, improve, and maintain GIS data throughout the state in preparation for Next Generation 9-1-1 (NG9-1-1).

Today more and more people rely on mobile phones as their primary phone service and are disconnecting wireline service altogether.  As a result, more 9-1-1 calls are being placed from mobile phones than ever before, including from inside buildings where E9-1-1 mobile phone location technology does not work very well.  Thanks to new FCC rules on this topic, wireless carriers and major industry technology players are now working to quickly address this issue.