Accurate GIS data critical to PSAPs migrating to next-gen 911
Berryman agreed, noting that compiling accurate GIS data can take years to gather and validate to meet the 98% accuracy requirements called for in next-generation 911 standards, if a PSAP has not done work in the area before.
There are many reasons for the extended time period. GIS data must be accurately input, as some computer-aided dispatch (CAD) systems cannot handle an extra space between words, Berryman said. More difficult is to ensure that nomenclature in the GIS database is accurate—for example, to differentiate “Main Street” and “Main Road,” or “First Street” and “1st Street” that may be in adjacent cities that are part of the same GIS database, he said.
It is a level of detail that few people outside of the public-safety community appreciate fully, Berryman said.
“If you’re not in public safety and don’t do this for 911, you don’t get a lot of the little nuances that are in there that you have to worry about. Conversely, if you’re getting GIS data from someone who’s not public-safety-oriented, they’re missing stuff, because they don’t know any better—they don’t know what NENA is, haven’t looked at any of the standards are or anything like that.
“So, whoever is maintaining your GIS data really needs to understand public safety and that we have rather stringent requirements and standards in place for a reason, because failure is not an option.”
Indeed, when responding to an emergency—when minutes can mean the difference between life and death—delays associated with misrouted calls or poor caller location because of subpar GIS data cannot be tolerated, Berryman said. And even budget-strapped public-safety entities can begin doing work in this area, he said.
“We don’t use Google maps,” Berryman said. “We go out there and field-verify everything. I didn’t do it; I got the fire departments and the police departments to do my field verification for me.”
“I used to play a game with them. I used to give them a big wall-sized map of their area and say, ‘If you find any mistake on this map, I’ll buy breakfast.’ You wouldn’t believe how much trouble people will go to for breakfast tacos or donuts. They just dig into it and say, ‘You spelled this street wrong,’ or whatever they can find.”
Such efforts can help save money down the road, when a third-party vendor may be used to ensure the GIS data is as accurate as possible. If a lot of the verification work has been done internally, amount of time and money needed to make the GIS data ready for next-generation 911 can drop dramatically, according to the Intrado officials.
