APCO Seeks Working Group Members to Create a New Candidate Standard for Common (CAD) Public Safety GIS Identifiers

CAD systems are the principal application used by public safety agencies to manage law enforcement, fire and EMS incidents from the initial time an incident is reported, to the conclusion of the incident.

The Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials (APCO) International has issued a call for participation for working group members to participate in the creation of a candidate standard titled Common Computer Aided Dispatch (CAD) Public Safety GIS Identifiers.

CAD systems are the principal application used by public safety agencies to manage law enforcement, fire and EMS incidents from the initial time an incident is reported, to the conclusion of the incident. These systems may be composed of both tabular records management systems (RMS) and spatial or geographic information (Geofile) systems.

“The use of CAD systems is the cornerstone of how ECC’s manage resources and respond to calls for service,” said Jason Kern, APCO International President. “Once complete, this standard will provide public safety agencies with the minimum set of requirements to allow sharing of geographic data.”

This standard focuses on the Geofile aspect of database updating and identifies a minimum set of CAD oriented geographic import/export database file requirements necessary to allow multiple agencies to share public safety geographic data and databases updates, utilizing 9-1-1 infrastructure and data, among disparate CAD systems.

APCO International is looking for a well-balanced group that will include contributions from training, technical and operational subject matter experts from the public safety communications realm. All interested persons should complete the online application and indicate their preference for this working group at Join a Working Group. The deadline is August 15, 2022.