Fire and Police

When responding to an emergency callout, fire and police teams need to know the exact location of the incident. Sending attending officers to the wrong site wastes precious time, prolonging a crime or fire and even risking lives. Giving command and control officers digital mapping tools at their fingertips means that a caller’s detailed location can be pinpointed and relayed to officers verbally or via in-vehicle navigation systems.

The quickest route to an incident is not necessarily the shortest one. With the intelligence provided by Ordnance Survey's OS MasterMap road network information, the best route can be identified quickly, taking into consideration road restrictions and known congestion areas. This information can also inform contingency planning, so that the most suitable routes to major public sites or high risk locations can be identified in advance.

Associating secondary information to the geographic data adds a valuable dimension to a force or brigade’s data holdings. Particular assets (such as hydrants) of importance to emergency response teams can be recorded against a common geographic dataset. Integrated geographic data can provide intelligence regarding patterns of crime, fire occurrence and other incidents for reports and periodic analysis, helping to inform resource planning and incident prediction.

Find out more about OS MasterMap by viewing our product demonstration.

Interested in finding out more about how our data helps the emergency services? Read case studies of our data in action.

The benefits of geographic intelligence to fire brigades and the police include:

• Easier information sharing through a single, accessible source of location data
• Human error minimised in finding locations by using a definitive geographic source
• An integrated, comprehensive information tool through the ability to associate, overlay and display your own information against Ordnance Survey’s location data
• Improved response times, potentially saving lives and minimising damage to property and assets
• Emergency vehicle tracking and in-cab navigation by combining Ordnance Survey data with GPS technology
• Common platform to share data across and between organisations
• Greater accuracy for allocating resources and strategic planning
• Trends and patterns can be displayed visually for analysis and post-incident evaluation
• Informed risk analysis: best routes can be planned in advance to centres with high volumes of attendees such as football grounds and concert venues, and those at risk of fire, such as factories and combustible material storage plants.