A new standard: Evolving to meet the needs of Next Generation 9-1-1
Shelby County 9-1-1 is the 9-1-1 district representing Shelby County, Tennessee and all cities therein. Serving a population of nearly 1 million people, Shelby County 9-1-1 provides 9-1-1 services and support to all Public Safety Answering Points (PSAPs), such as call-taking mapping services and 9-1-1 GIS data.
When Bruno Blanco, GIS Engineer at Shelby County 9-1-1, joined the team, many processes were completed manually. Updating core data, such as address points and street name elements, was a time-consuming process that limited the team’s capacity to take on other projects. Next Generation 9-1-1 (NG9-1-1) standards also required the incorporation of new data fields, adding to the team’s workload. To contribute additional contextual information in compliance with NG9-1-1 standards and to increase operational efficiency, Shelby County 9-1-1 needed to further automate their processes.
Having previously used FME for simple ETL tasks involving GIS data, Bruno applied FME in a new way to enhance team productivity and to help scale to meet the requirements of NG9-1-1 at Shelby County 9-1-1.
Driving compliance through automation
To further comply with NG9-1-1 standards, Shelby County 9-1-1 required seamless integration and transformation of diverse data types. With native support for all data, FME enables the team to automatically ingest their data across multiple sources—including nonspatial data contained in tables and text files—that would otherwise be challenging to consume using off-the-shelf commercial GIS software. With FME, the team has enhanced their capacity to ingest supplementary data points such as subdivision and business names. As Bruno explained, “we’re consuming a lot of other data formats to transform them into something that we can use… FME makes it much easier because it’s already supported.”
By reducing the amount of manual work needed to get GIS data ready for NG9-1-1, FME has increased the team’s overall productivity and empowered them to take on more projects: “Staff productivity is much higher now that we don’t need to dedicate so much time to repetitive tasks and developing complex scripts… We also have more time to take on other projects and enhance existing data and automation,” emphasized Bruno.
Enhancing data quality for better emergency response
Dealing with hundreds of thousands of data points across 10-15 different sources, FME has become a core quality assurance and control (QA/QC) tool for 9-1-1 GIS data. With change detection, FME identifies and filters duplicate data, ensuring existing points are not overwritten and lost. This process enhances efficiency by inserting only new information, removing deleted values, and appropriately updating points.
Auto attribution improves data accuracy by identifying critical errors before they’re ingested in NG9-1-1 core services, reducing the risk of compliance issues or delays. Without FME’s auto attribution capabilities, errors reaching NG9-1-1 services would need to be redirected back to Shelby County 9-1-1, leading to an overall inefficient process. By ensuring that NG9-1-1 core services receive error-free datasets, Shelby County 9-1-1 is reducing the impact of delays in a system heavily strengthened by timely updates.
Empowering 9-1-1 teams with NG9-1-1 data
Using FME, Shelby County 9-1-1 curates and cleans data, ensuring emergency response stakeholders have easy access to high-quality, tailored information. For instance, subdivision names from parcel data listed as “Oak Hills Phase 2, Blk 1, Sec A” are simplified to retain only core information: “Oak Hills”. Only essential details are displayed, making data easier for stakeholders to interpret.
Automating processes with FME not only improves accessibility but also enhances the county’s overall emergency response capabilities. As shared by Bruno, “More frequent updates translates into better location accuracy when people call… We’re adding a lot more information on our maps that help with situational awareness when citizens call in.”
This curated and cleaned data enhances situational awareness for emergency responders and improves usability for stakeholders, such as local municipalities. By sharing tailored, near real-time data, Shelby County 9-1-1 acts as a core data source for local municipalities and stakeholders needing complete, accurate information.
With FME, Shelby County 9-1-1 has streamlined its operations, reduced reliance on manual processes, and ensured compliance with NG9-1-1 standards. The organization is now better positioned to scale its services as NG9-1-1 evolves, supporting more projects and enhancing emergency response capabilities for nearly 1 million residents.
