Tri-County School Safety Pilot Project
Project Overview
The Greater St. Cloud Public Safety Foundation is a collaboration of the private sector and public servants to create the support structure necessary to build trust in the community. The Foundation promotes efforts that support fire, police, and emergency service providers in Benton, Sherburne and Stearns Counties in Central Minnesota. The Tri-County School Safety Pilot Project was a partnership between the Foundation, local school districts, county 9-1-1 emergency dispatch centers, and GeoComm. Together, this effort aimed to create detailed GIS indoor maps of seven pilot schools in the Tri-County area to improve response times to school incidents. The maps were shared with dispatch centers to be used in their 9-1-1 applications.
Project Quick Facts
“This pilot project was a multi-faceted approach that considered the needs of local schools and recommendations from emergency responders,” said Tom Grones, founder of GeoComm and former board member of the Foundation. “The wider Tri-County community immediately understood the connection between indoor maps and school safety. Everyone worked collaboratively to make this project smooth and efficient.”
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Indoor Maps Support Faster and Safer Crisis Response
Schools participating in the pilot project had architectural maps of their campuses, but most were paper copies and not easily available to emergency responders.
GeoComm, using Esri technology, applied its indoor mapping expertise to create accurate, enhanced GIS school maps for emergency response. The scope of the pilot project included:
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The creation of indoor maps at seven pilot schools.
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Upgrades of the mapping software at each county dispatch center, ensuring easy access to the schools’ indoor maps.
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A Rave panic button for school faculty and administrators, giving them immediate connection to 9-1-1 services and the ability to communicate with other school staff in a crisis.
Within a few months of the pilot project kick-off, the indoor maps were accessible for telecommunications and first responders in GeoComm Maps and other public safety mapping applications.
Applying map data effectively
The Foundation and GeoComm partnered to train Tri-County dispatch and responders on maximizing the benefits of indoor maps. “Maps alone aren’t the answer,” explained Craigie. “It’s important to train the responders and put procedures in place to operationalize the map data.”
In the case of a major incident, many jurisdictions are likely to respond. They may not know the local area or the building, which makes indoor GIS maps especially essential for outside entities.
“Dispatch can now direct responders very specifically and accurately,” said Steve. “For a major incident, the maps help us coordinate and deploy a major response.”
Better visibility and situational awareness
Detailed indoor maps help first responders prepare and get to the emergency faster, while also having better situational awareness of their own safety. In addition, area responders can view locations of security cameras so they can see first-hand what’s going on inside a building.
For instance, in the case of a classroom fire, responders may be directed to the north side of a building, and then to take ‘Stairwell A’ to the second floor where the ‘Science Room’ is located on the left – while being careful of the ‘Chemical Storage Closet’ that is three doors down.
August 29, 2023
