by Keri Brennan, Product Manager of Geographic Information System (GIS) Content and Services & Karl Larsen, Senior Product Manager
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
Keri Brennan works as a Product Manager for GIS Content and Services at GeoComm. She is responsible for managing the Public Safety GIS Content and Services Line of Business including emerging technologies and services in the area of hosted content and indoor mapping, strategic plans aligned with market needs and industry standards. Keri demonstrates thought leadership through industry engagement, and through addressing the industry audience in various presentations.
Karl Larsen is a GeoComm Senior Product Manager and has worked innovatively on 9-1-1 mapping solutions to address the challenge of improving indoor location accuracy. Karl routinely collaborates with public safety and GIS professionals to understand user needs and apply this knowledge to GeoComm solutions.
Who is GeoComm?
GeoComm, provider of Public Safety Location Intelligence®, serves local, regional, statewide, and military agencies in forty-nine states, helping keep more than 100 million people safe. Over the last 26 years, GeoComm’s public safety GIS systems have routed emergency calls to the appropriate 9-1-1 call center, mapped the caller’s location on a call taker or dispatcher map, and guided emergency responders to the scene of the accident on mobile displays within police, fire, and ambulance vehicles. In addition, in 2021 our statewide NG9-1-1 GIS project footprint has expanded to include 17 statewide projects across the country. To learn more about GeoComm and our Public Safety Location Intelligence offerings visit www.geo-comm.com.
What challenge is GeoComm aiming to solve?
According to the National Emergency Number Association (NENA), an estimated 250 million 9-1-1 calls are placed each year in the United States, with 80 percent or more from wireless devices. In addition, many of these 9-1-1 calls come from callers located indoors, highlighting the critical need for 9-1-1 telecommunicators to be able to relay accurate, specific, and up-to-date indoor location details to first responders. Today, most callers expect 9-1-1 centers to pinpoint their exact location during emergency calls, even down to the specific room number, and tragically in cases where this isn’t possible, fatalities occur. Without mapping technology, like GeoComm Maps and GeoComm Indoor Maps combined with RapidSOS Portal, the data Emergency Communication Centers (ECCs) will receive may not be enough to accurately locate where the 9-1-1 call originates.
What is the GeoComm and RapidSOS solution?
GeoComm Maps is connected to the RapidSOS emergency response data platform to enable ECCs and emergency responders to view hybrid-device-based locations available in the RapidSOS platform within GeoComm’s cloud-native 9-1-1 mapping application.
Through the RapidSOS Platform, GeoComm Maps can provide public safety agencies the ability to deliver the right location data to the right user at the right time.
In addition, GeoComm Indoor Maps when combined with device-based location data for 9-1-1 callers, provides actionable location context for enhancing situational awareness, reducing response times, and ultimately saving more lives during emergency situations. GeoComm Indoor Maps includes a way for gathering source data from building owners/operators and then converting the data into indoor maps. The resulting indoor maps are then made available to ECCs through RapidSOS Portal, providing the ability to view indoor maps depicting floors, rooms, corridors, entrances, exits, and other building features.
Why did GeoComm become RapidSOS Ready?
GeoComm decided to connect GeoComm Maps with the RapidSOS emergency response data platform in order to provide our customers the most accurate 9-1-1 call location. GeoComm’s decision to do this dates back several years and it is our third offering that includes this capability.
GeoComm Indoor Maps, when combined with RapidSOS Portal allows emergency responders and ECC’s to feel empowered with more detailed information and visual representations of indoor spaces from where the 9-1-1 call originated. GeoComm, now being RapidSOS ready, allows for these ECCs to view these emergencies on one centralized interface, through the RapidSOS Portal, depicting building features to empower 9-1-1 call responders with the quickest, most accurate location data.
What are you looking forward to in this partnership?
GeoComm is looking forward to this exciting partnership with RapidSOS because it is a necessary step forward in reaching a seamless actionable location context for emergency situations. With GeoComm and RapidSOS efforts combined, enhanced situational awareness, reduced response times, and ultimately saving more lives can be accomplished. GeoComm is looking forward to the future, and through our partnership with RapidSOS, NG9-1-1 capabilities can be further enhanced to bring the best and newest technologies to emergency responders.
To learn more about our partnership, please visit this page to provide your information and we will be in touch.
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