Concho Valley Council of Governments (CVCOG), Texas Exploring a New Way to Make Schools Safer Using GIS

CVCOG provides emergency communications services for approximately 16,300 square mile region in West Texas, supporting 15 Public Service Answering Points (PSAPs) within the thirteen-county region.

Table of Contents

Project Overview

Working with 9-1-1 entities across the state, the Texas Commission on State Emergency Communications (CSEC) realized that indoor GIS maps of buildings across the state largely do not exist. Since there are over 10 million buildings in the state, creating new GIS maps of each building would present a significant challenge. As a result, the CSEC sought to design a proof-of-concept (PoC) project for crowdsourcing indoor map development of one particular high priority building type, high schools. The CVCOG 9-1-1 program expressed interest, and along with private contractor, GeoComm, helped the CSEC design a PoC project scope and charter. CVCOG 9-1-1 and Mason High School then became the test case for the PoC project.

“We are extremely proud of the opportunities to involve students, teachers, and first responders in this pilot project, whose work and participation will improve the public safety of our schools and communities,” said Jeff Lopez, 9-1-1 Program Manager, CVCOG. “GeoComm provided invaluable guidance, ensuring the team and project reached their full potential. We are hopeful that our work will be an impetus to accelerate indoor mapping efforts across the state.”

Project Results & Key Learnings

Working together, CVCOG staff and Mason High School students and faculty successfully created a detailed indoor map of Mason High School and used it for 9-1-1 call location testing.