But even with the consumer location information
available, dispatch centers weren’t — and many
still are not — equipped to use the information.
GeoComm volunteered to upgrade the three
counties’ 911 centers for free, according to
Tom Grones, GeoComm’s founder and board
chair. GeoComm partnered with the software
company RapidSOS to outfit the dispatch
centers with technology capable of using
consumer locations.
“The heavy lifting has been done,” Grones
said. “Now let’s backload with as much data
as possible.”
Even if St. Cloud-area dispatch centers are
outfitted with new technology, 911 responders
still cannot see within buildings on maps.
That’s where GeoComm can help. By partnering
with school districts, GeoComm was able to add
indoor maps to improve the accuracy of indoor
locations even more.
So instead of the dispatcher seeing a dot inside
a square building on a map, they are able to see
that the caller is near the stairway by the main
door, for example.
“We think every school in every state should be
pushing its indoor maps into the 911 dispatch
centers,” Brosowsky said.
But it takes partnerships and a new way
of thinking.
“It’s going to be a heavy lift because we can’t
go to the 911 dispatch center and say, ‘Hey you
need to pay a million dollars so we can build all
these indoor maps,’” Brosowsky said. “It’s going
to have to be a community/collective effort
where everyone shares in the cost.”