Frisco Awarded as It Expands Emergency Response Project

This year’s winners of the Digital Cities awards from the Center for Digital Government* stepped up their municipalities’ prioritization of security and citizen services.

The city of Frisco has gone all in on its Situational Awareness for Emergency Response (SAFER) project, which has resulted in significant improvements in response times, data accuracy and video surveillance coverage. A multi-agency collaboration between Frisco’s Police Department, Fire Department, Independent School District, IT/GIS staff and city management, the SAFER project has resulted in the development of a comprehensive emergency management system that is unique to the city.

Since its development in 2008, SAFER has expanded from its initial scope of schools and city facilities to include commercial properties while integrating advanced dispatch systems and modernized user interfaces. Within the past year, Frisco has further enhanced emergency response capabilities with predictive ETAs, real-time traffic data and a native SAFER app, resulting in a 15 percent improvement in response efficiency.

Additionally, Frisco successfully piloted an artificial intelligence-driven solution that rerouted nonemergency 911 calls to a dedicated service line based on call data collected in a closed test environment. The pilot resulted in a 10 percent reduction in emergency response times. The city intends to deploy AI-driven predictive policing solutions to further increase public safety efficiencies.

*Note: The Center for Digital Government is part of e.Republic, the parent company of Industry Insider — Texas.