GeoJava

Reflecting on Three Decades of Innovation and Service in Public and School Safety

As GeoComm celebrates 30 years in the Geographic Information Systems (GIS) industry, it’s impossible not to feel a profound sense of gratitude for the remarkable journey we have shared with our clients, partners, and colleagues. What began as a small vision to harness the power of location-based data for the greater good has blossomed into three decades of dedicated service, growth, and innovation—touching countless lives along the way. Today, we pause to say thank you to the GIS community for your unwavering support, collaboration, and trust.

Thank You to the GIS Community

Thirty years is no small milestone. It is a testament not only to endurance, but also to the spirit of partnership and mutual progress that defines the GIS community. From the beginning, our mission has been clear: to deliver high-quality, reliable GIS solutions that empower public safety professionals and create safer learning environments for students and educators. We could never have achieved this without the ingenuity and passion of the broader GIS community.

To every public safety agency, school district, emergency management official, and fellow GIS professionals we have had the privilege to work with—thank you. Your collaborative spirit and commitment to excellence have continuously inspired us to push boundaries and seek creative solutions to complex challenges. The trust you have placed in us is not something we take for granted. Each project, each late-night troubleshooting session, and every brainstorming meeting has helped shape who we are as an organization.

GIS in Action: Iowa and North Carolina

In recent years, GeoComm’s products and services have been at the center of several statewide initiatives, most notably in Iowa and North Carolina. These projects exemplify our mission in action—using GIS technology to enhance public safety on a broad scale and to foster cross-agency collaboration.

In Iowa, GeoComm worked with the Iowa Department of Education to implement critical incident mapping (CIM) for over 1,400 Iowa schools. As part of this project, the GeoComm School Safety solution staff conducted site visits to verify the accuracy of provided floor plan resources, scan school buildings, and collect locations of public safety points of interest in and around schools.

Designed to address all forms of school emergencies, GeoComm’s School Safety solution enables emergency incidents and 9-1-1 caller locations to be displayed on a comprehensive digital representation of the school.

School security officials can also access the maps on both web and mobile devices. Additionally, the maps are securely shared with public safety agencies via existing mission-critical software applications through GeoComm’s Public Safety Content Library.

In North Carolina, GeoComm was selected as North Carolina’s NG9-1-1 GIS provider, which required GeoComm to:

• Complete a statewide GIS educational campaign aimed at helping the local agencies understand the goals of the statewide NG9-1-1 project.
• Complete a GIS data assessment of each individual county’s GIS data to determine its readiness for a NG9-1-1 system.  The GIS data assessment analyzed their existing GIS data schema, helped them understand the NG9-1-1 GIS data model standards, and recommended GIS data improvement items for achieving public safety grade GIS data throughout the state.
• Onboard all North Carolina counties to GeoComm GIS Data Hub for NG9-1-1 GIS data validation and aggregation of the data into a statewide dataset. Quality control check processing is also completed providing data quality reports to each of the participating counties.

Both of these projects underscore what is possible when technology and teamwork come together. They also highlight the ever-evolving role of GIS in shaping safer, more resilient communities.

Looking Forward

As we look to the future, we remain committed to our core values of innovation, collaboration, and service. The past 30 years have taught us that progress is best achieved together, and that every milestone is built on the collective efforts of a passionate and dedicated community.

Thank you, once again, to everyone who has been a part of this journey. Here’s to the next chapter, filled with new challenges, new partnerships, and new opportunities to make a difference—together.