Story The Allegany County Department Of Emergency Services faced a common challenge encountered by many 9-1-1 centers across the United States: the need for accurate, accessible indoor location data to reduce risk and save seconds during emergency response. The Department Of Emergency Services, with support from the Maryland 9-1-1 Board, partnered with DATAMARK Technologies to lead their indoor mapping initiative and develop a solution that would work for public safety, school and facility stakeholders. Challenge Allegany County’s Computer-Aided Dispatch (CAD) and Call Handling Equipment (CHE) systems lacked accessible indoor mapping information. Without precise data, first responders struggled to locate callers and resources indoors. Approach Allegany County turned to DATAMARK Technologies for a secure, scalable and integrated solution. The team embarked on a data collection mission, capturing detailed floor plans and Geographic Information System (GIS) data for critical locations, including schools, government buildings, hospitals, and apartment buildings. The result was public safety grade GIS data, complete with 360-degree interior imagery for ingestion into the organization’s indoor mapping solution, INSIDE. Operator using INSIDE on computer screen Implementation In just 25 days, DATAMARK collected and processed the data for all 40 buildings. Leveraging DATAMARK’s cloud-native indoor mapping solution, INSIDE, Allegany County’s Department of Emergency Services gained access to the responsive indoor data directly within their existing call handling equipment and CAD system. The data adhered to industry standard Esri and ArcGIS Indoor data models, providing 9-1-1 telecommunicators with a single pane of glass user experience. User-Friendly Updates Thanks to INSIDE’s user-friendly platform, non-GIS professionals like facility managers and school administrators can leverage indoor location data by logging in to update room names, Automated External Defibrillator (AED) locations, and attach class lists. These updates are dynamically reflected in Allegany’s 9-1-1 systems, creating a seamless experience for telecommunicators, law enforcement, firefighters, paramedics and emergency managers. Impact Allegany County’s emergency response landscape transformed. With precise, collaborative indoor data at their fingertips, 9-1-1 telecommunicators and responders are now able to garner situational awareness prior to entering a building and can navigate to incidents in complex buildings efficiently. Recipe for success Seamless CAD and CHE Integration INSIDE is vendor-agnostic and integrates with existing CAD and CHE equipment. User-Managed Updates Buildings change constantly. INSIDE users can easily update data on their own without engaging with a 3rd party. Secure, Role-Based Access Make sure that only the stakeholders you choose can access and manage indoor data. Purpose-Built For Dispatchers And First Responders INSIDE helps 9-1-1 telecommunicators and field responders reduce risk and respond to incidents more efficiently.
