Interview with Brooks Shannon

1) Tell us something about your career journey or personal experiences that isn’t included in your official bio.

Before I fell into public safety by accident, as a software engineer fresh out of college, I had no idea the challenges that 911 telecommunicators and first responders faced. Ever since I stepped foot in my first PSAP and realized how emergency response really works – not like how it looks on TV, but really works – I’ve been on a singular mission to provide public safety professionals with the best tools they can possibly have at hand to affect the very best response possible. It’s something that I am hyper-passionate about, and I never would have gone down this path had it not been for being transferred to a tiny little 911 and GIS division the regional consulting engineering firm in North Dakota that hired me after I graduated from North Dakota State University. After I completed my very first professional software development project – a GIS-based set of tools that analyzed airspace around airports to determine suitability for new construction sites per Federal Aviation Administration rules regarding the height of structures in proximity to runway centerlines – the only other home for me within the firm was that little 911 and GIS division, called BullBerry Systems. I thought to myself, “why not give it a shot? 911 sounds cool and interesting,” and, all these years later, I can’t believe how blessed I was to find my way into this industry by complete accident.

2) How can GIS technology be effectively used to create detailed indoor maps for emergency response and building safety?

GIS technology offers many ways to create indoor maps. Methods run the gamut from manually creating maps by hand, digitizing them using editing tools in desktop GIS data, to creating them automatically by importing them into GIS with tools that convert existing detailed indoor maps in non-GIS data formats into GIS data. For many modern buildings, digital architectural drawings exist that were used in their design and construction. While those drawings, produced in computer aided design software, may not be reflective of a building’s current configuration, starting with them first and updating them as needed can save a lot of time compared to drawing them in GIS from scratch. Similarly, many facilities use facilities management software that often has detailed indoor mapping data available. That data, referred to as Building Information Model data, can be imported directly into GIS just like digital architectural drawings.

For buildings that don’t have existing digital maps, other kinds of GIS tools can be used to speed up the creation of indoor maps. LiDAR scanning devices can be used to produce 3D point clouds that GIS tools can automatically convert into GIS-based indoor maps. Photogrammetry equipment can be used as well, collecting 3D imagery that can be converted into GIS data. And, indoor maps that are available as image files and PDFs can be converted into GIS data as well, by using tools powered by AI and machine learning to “vectorize” the points, lines, and polygons within the PDF map. Technologists are even exploring the use of AI to process streaming video recorded indoors to create GIS-based indoor maps.

Once indoor maps exist in GIS, it’s easy to enrich and modify them to keep them up to date. Desktop applications used by GIS professionals and mobile apps designed for people with little to no GIS experience allow many different kinds of people to collaborate together to ensure that indoor maps don’t go out of date. Automated processes using GIS technology can also be implemented to ensure that if changes are made to the indoor maps used by other systems, like facilities management systems, those changes can be automatically imported into GIS to ensure the maps are kept in sync. Methods like these can be employed to ensure that when first responders need indoor maps, the maps provide as trustworthy intelligence as possible.

3) What are the key challenges in integrating GIS with existing building safety systems, and how can they be addressed?

While other challenges might exist, from my perspective there are general classes of challenges that exist. Both are not impossible to overcome, but may require a little – or a lot – of work to overcome.

The first challenge is ensuring that if building safety systems use an indoor map, that the systems are capable of using a GIS-based indoor map. Some might be able to, while others not. If a building safety system cannot use a GIS-based indoor map, the system should be enhanced to ideally use GIS data directly, or at the very least, be enhanced to be able to accept the data updates that can be easily and frequently made to indoor maps in GIS.

The second challenge that exists is obtaining information from building safety systems, so that it can be integrated into GIS. If a building information system collects real-time telemetry data that could indicate, for example, a fire or an intrusion, that data can become much more useful if it can be integrated into GIS. GIS offers a seamless way to integrate data like this with public safety systems for real-time situational awareness and post-incident analysis. If a building safety system cannot expose data like this via an application programming interface (API), it should.

4) Can you share an example of a successful implementation of GIS for indoor mapping that improved safety outcomes?

I can share four interesting examples that highlight a variety of ways that indoor maps can improve safety outcomes.

The first two examples took place in the City of Frisco, Texas. In the first example, during the 2021 snowstorm known locally as “Snowmageddon,” a severe winter storm caused widespread infrastructure failures, including frozen pipes that disabled fire suppression systems in hundreds of buildings – putting these buildings on a fire watch status. First responders were inundated with fire alarm calls and needed to navigate unfamiliar facilities quickly. Thanks to integrated indoor maps, responders understood the nature of the suppression system failure and determine the best entry points and routes through the buildings. Firefighters could, for example, use the map to locate the riser room and determine that the fire suppression system was nonfunctional due to frozen pipes. They could enter through the nearest door, navigate directly to the affected area, and mitigate the risk before the situation escalated. Without the indoor maps, responders would have had to rely on outdated paper maps or would be forced to navigate buildings with no maps at all; in either case, that could have added many minutes to their response times.

In the second example, a fire started in a high school’s laundry room dryer ventilation system. Smoke was detected through real-time CCTV camera feeds integrated into the indoor maps. The first responder on scene used the indoor map to identify the exact location of the fire and directed incoming units to the correct exterior door. The ability to see the layout of the building and pinpoint the fire's location allowed responders to arrive on scene as close to the fire as possible and navigate to its location indoors in the least amount of time possible. This incident demonstrated how indoor mapping can reduce the "zero impact period" (ZIP) – the time before effective action begins because responders are still assessing the situation – by giving responders the information they need before they arrive on-scene. For the City of Frisco, that, ZIP time is reduced since company officers can know exactly where to go, versus searching for the hazard and are able to assess the situation more quickly before arriving on scene. For example, first responders can review the building’s floor plan, look at data inside the facility such as nearby infrastructure and live video feeds, and understand where they need to go and what they need to do to solve the problem, allowing them to jump into action better prepared once they arrive on-scene.

Two other interesting examples occurred in the state of Illinois. In the first example, indoor maps were used in what initially appeared to be an active shooter situation. A person called 911 and said he was going to kill high school students, he was headed to the school, and he has a gun. Approximately two minutes later, he called back and the 911 call taker could hear shots being fired in the background. The incident triggered responses from multiple agencies – agencies that typically worked outside of the school’s jurisdiction and weren’t familiar with each other’s jurisdictions. The indoor mapping system showed all the responders – even the ones from outside of the area – the layout of every building, down to which doors to use. The maps helped coordinate their responses. Responders notified incident command of every room they cleared and dispatch and incident command on scene were able to track their activity in real time. Fortunately, the incident turned out to be a false alarm – criminal harassment known as swatting. But the response revealed how effective indoor maps could be when agencies needed to coordinate quickly across unfamiliar territory.

The other example occurred during a medical emergency. A student was choking in an elementary school, and the caller was able to provide a room number where help was needed. The room was on the far side of the building near a driveway, and the responding ambulance and fire truck both drove up to that door, went into that doorway, and walked a few feet and found the student. If they had used the main entrance, response could have taken up to five minutes longer.

5) What role does GIS play in ensuring that first responders have accurate and detailed building layouts during school emergencies, minimizing response times and improving safety outcomes?

Like in the examples above, GIS plays a key role in ensuring that during school emergencies, 911 telecommunicators and first responders have access to the intelligence and situational awareness they need to provide the best response possible. GIS makes it easy to share detailed information about building layouts, ingress and egress points, and additional information that can be accessed directly from the map, such as CCTV camera feeds. This data can be shared among all responders, so if multiple agencies respond to an emergency, they can share a true common operating picture, ensuring everyone is aware of the situation at all times.

6) What steps can organizations take to ensure their GIS data is accurate and up to date for building safety applications?

My biggest recommendation is to develop a plan to review the dates that indoor maps were last updated, to perform outreach to the providers of those maps to update them as necessary and provide tools that allow the providers of those maps to easily update them. Without an easy way to update indoor maps, building owners and facilities managers may not update them frequently, or at all. Sometimes, companies will update indoor maps on behalf of building owners, and in that case, I recommend that organizations work with those companies to understand how often they update their maps, and determine if a more frequent update cadence might be required.

7) What can attendees expect to gain from your session at IWCE 2026?

My hope is that attendees leave my session with a better understanding of the power that indoor maps bring to public safety, and all the ways that they can be used to improve emergency response. The investment made in building and maintaining indoor maps can be leveraged in many different ways. For example, attendees will leave the session knowing that if an indoor map is initially created as part of a fire incident pre-plan, that same map can be used if an emergency occurs at a school, and vice versa; if an indoor map is created to be used during tactical response at a school, that same map can be used to produce detailed fire incident pre-plans. And lastly, attendees will leave with an understanding that indoor maps are easier to create in GIS than a lot of people believe, and we can come together to create indoor maps at scale to ensure the safety and security of the public and first responders inside of schools, and may other kinds of buildings.

8) What are you most excited about for IWCE 2026, and how do you think the event will impact the industry?

I am most excited about all the opportunities that everyone will have to come together and elevate public safety. The collaboration that occurs at IWCE is phenomenal, and the mix of attendee backgrounds and expertise provides a perfect opportunity to work together on solving some of our toughest challenges. IWCE 2026 will open peoples’ eyes and their minds, and will help everyone think bigger than ever before. If innovation in public safety is like a race car, IWCE 2026 will be the nitrous oxide that the industry needs to help us all achieve the goals we’re working towards, and the primary goal of improving public safety itself – not just someday far in the future, but now.