Introduction

By default, when we get an alert from your dispatch, we attempt to generate a latitude and longitude for the alert location by searching Google Maps for the address your dispatch provided us. These are the steps we follow:

1. We check the call data sent by your dispatch for an address.If no address is given, we skip mapping completely.We check for a city name.If your dispatch specifies a city, we will use it. If not, we check to see if you have set a default city. If you haven't, we will usually default to the name of your county. If we don't have that, either, we will use the city from your account address.We check for a state.If no state is given, we use the one from your account address.We search Google Maps for "ADDRESS CITY, STATE".Remember, if you didn't give us a city, this will usually be "ADDRESS, COUNTY, STATE".We make sure the result is reasonable.This means calculating the distance as the crow flies between your main address and the one that Google returns in the search. If the distance is more than 20 miles, we discard it and skip mapping. We can adjust the distance used to discard mapping that is too far away at request of the agency's admin.We replace the city name with the one that came up in the Google search.This is only done if your dispatch did not specify a city and we were forced to use a guess.

How to get the best mapping results with Active911

GPS coordinates from dispatch

Most CAD systems used by dispatch centers only send Active911 the street address and city name for the location of a call. Some CAD systems are capable of sending the GPS coordinates for the location of a call, in addition to sending the street address. Using GPS coordinates sent by dispatch for mapping in Active911 is the best way to get accurate mapping, ASLONG AS THE COORDINATES PROVIDED BY DISPATCH ARE ACCURATE. If your dispatch is sending us GPS coordinates, click here for more information about how tell Active911 to use the coordinates for mapping.

Wiz

Wiz is a mapping system that was built by Active911 to use GIS shapefiles provided by users to improve mapping accuracy. If your department has a GIS shapefile that contains address points for the addresses in your jurisdiction, you can send that file to Active911 to use with Wiz and improve the mapping accuracy of your alerts. For more details about how Wiz works, and what is required to use it, please click here.

Related FAQ

The mapping for my alert took me to the wrong location

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