How the City of Frisco Enhanced Public Safety with ArcGIS Indoors

The population of Frisco, Texas, located in the fast-growing Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex, has surged from 35,000 to over 240,000 since 2001, increasing the need for shared situational awareness during emergencies. Ensuring that the city remains prepared for the demands of a rapidly expanding community, the City of Frisco has built a robust, scalable, sustainable, and future-ready enterprise system with ArcGIS, the leader in geographic information system (GIS) technology. With it, the city transforms complex spatial analysis into easy-to-understand maps, apps, and content for decision-makers, including mapped indoor spaces.

Frisco began mapping indoor spaces in 2008, after the city’s school district requested that first responders have access to school floor plans in case of a large-scale emergency, such as a natural disaster or significant threat to student safety.

Susan Benedicto, Frisco’s assistant director of information technology for geospatial solutions, has led the city’s GIS team and implemented ArcGIS Enterprise. The GIS team mapped 50 schools using ArcGIS temporal data capabilities, allowing users to select and view specific floors within a building using time-aware layers.

As Frisco grew, so did the need to map more facilities—including hospitals, malls, city buildings, and major venues like the corporate headquarters of the Dallas Cowboys and PGA of America. A major challenge was acquiring accurate, usable floor plan data. Engineers and architects were often reluctant to share digital floor plans, making indoor mapping labor-intensive. Additionally, keeping maps updated depended on getting notifications from building owners or facility managers, which was not always reliable.

To continue expanding indoor mapping sustainably, Frisco needed a faster way to build maps and a simpler process for keeping them current.

Frisco’s desire for a sustainable indoor mapping solution accelerated after the release of ArcGIS Indoors in 2019. At the Esri User Conference, Benedicto and her team saw the potential for ArcGIS Indoors to address their challenges and support future growth.

The city adopted ArcGIS Indoors to standardize data and enable future integrations such as Next Generation 911. The GIS team developed conversion scripts to migrate legacy indoor mapping data into the ArcGIS Indoors Information Model, aligning it with the city’s fire record management system (RMS) using unique building identifiers. This integration gave dispatchers and first responders seamless access to building details, contact information, and chemical inventories directly within the Situational Awareness for Emergency Response (SAFER) platform, which provides the city’s unified operational view for public safety.

To streamline data collection and editing, Frisco used ArcGIS Pro, ArcGIS Enterprise, and field apps like ArcGIS Field Maps. Now, first responders use mobile tools to verify and update information on fire safety features—such as the locations of fire alarm control panels, lock boxes, riser rooms, standpipes, and automated external defibrillators (AEDs). This eliminated the need for GIS staff to manually process submissions that first responders provided in the past.

The GIS team also built mobile apps to support facility maintenance. The Strategic Photo Collection app helps collect photos of important infrastructure inside and around facilities. The custom Camera Health Check app allows school resource officers to verify video cameras’ functionality during annual inspections.

“Taking GIS indoors is truly the next frontier for a city like Frisco,” said Benedicto. “This effort requires equally accurate data, which means collaborating with the development and building community to provide the necessary data.”

As of 2025, Frisco has mapped over 140 schools and administrative buildings, plus nearly 60 other facilities—covering more than 20 million square feet. To ensure that maps stay current, the city began efforts to require engineers and architects to submit computer-aided design (CAD) files for all commercial permits and alterations. This policy shift will ensure timely updates, and it supports the city’s goal of maintaining current and reliable indoor maps for emergency response.

To maintain the maps over time, staff developed workflows and tools that allow for proactive updates and integration with permitting processes. This involves GIS data processing to convert submitted CAD files into clean, usable geospatial data. The team uses custom scripts and ArcGIS Pro tools to extract relevant geometry, simplify complex features, and align them with the Indoors Information Model, and the team manually performs any necessary cleanup. For example, a hospital floor plan with thousands of arcs (line work found in CAD drawings) that represent fixtures is cleaned to retain only essential structural and safety elements.

After validation, these layers are published to ArcGIS Enterprise and become part of the city’s operational mapping environment.

Looking ahead, the GIS team also is planning to put editing tools directly in the hands of all users—including first responders—by enabling field-based floor plan updates with Esri’s Floor Plan Editor. This initiative will start with simpler buildings, such as strip malls and quick-service restaurants, and expand to more complex facilities over time. By empowering everyone involved in emergency response to keep indoor maps accurate and up to date, Frisco ensures that its geospatial infrastructure remains reliable and responsive to the city’s needs.

Frisco’s indoor mapping system has proved essential in the city’s most challenging emergencies. During Winter Storm Uri in 2021, there were widespread infrastructure failures, and hundreds of buildings were put on fire watch—monitored for fire risk—because frozen pipes disabled fire suppression systems. First responders faced a surge of fire alarm calls and needed to navigate unfamiliar facilities quickly.

Before indoor mapping, first responders had to rely on outdated paper maps or, in some cases, had no maps at all. Navigating unfamiliar buildings with incomplete information often added critical minutes to response times, increasing risk for both responders and the community.

However, with the integrated maps, responders could now:

• Use the map to understand the nature of the suppression system failure and determine the best entry points and routes through the buildings to reach the impacted area
• Locate the riser room and confirm that the fire suppression system was nonfunctional due to frozen pipes
• Mitigate the risk before the situation escalated

This saved valuable time and reduced risk. The use of indoor mapping during the storm also inspired the fire department to work with the GIS team to expand the tool’s capabilities for situational awareness—leading to the development of the SAFER Fire Watch module. This tool visualizes which buildings are on fire watch and provides firefighters with an application to manage them. Additionally, it provided a visual indicator that a building was on fire watch as well as a link to access the details of the impairment.

“I believe it is critical to have accurate GIS data, providing a strong GIS foundation to develop systems like SAFER,” said Benedicto. “This partnership will enable GIS to complete this space, ultimately giving our first responders full awareness of the final part of their route to respond to an emergency.”

Indoor mapping has also proved invaluable in other emergencies. For example, during an elementary school fire, real-time closed-circuit television (CCTV) feeds showed smoke in the laundry room ventilation system. With detailed floor plans, responders could pinpoint the fire’s exact location and direct incoming units to the correct entry. 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 the scene.

Indoor floor plans have also proved invaluable for navigating complex structures, such as urban wrap apartment complexes and high-rise hotels. These buildings often have confusing layouts with multiple stairwells and elevator banks serving different floors. Accurate, GIS-enabled maps allow responders to identify the fastest route to the incident, saving precious minutes and improving emergency outcomes.

For the City of Frisco, ZIP time has decreased since responders can know exactly where to go, rather than searching for the hazard and assessing the situation only after arrival. For example, first responders can review the building’s floor plan, examine data about the  facility such as nearby infrastructure information and live video feeds, and understand where they need to go and what actions to take. This preparation allows them to jump into action once they arrive at the scene.

In all these cases, Frisco’s investment in GIS-enabled indoor mapping provided first responders with the tools and information needed to act quickly and effectively, improving safety outcomes for the entire community.

Frisco’s investment in indoor mapping has transformed emergency response and public safety operations across the city. Today, telecommunicators and first responders can access detailed indoor maps, floor plans, and inspection data from anywhere—directly within the SAFER application. These maps are tightly integrated with the city’s fire RMS, providing up-to-date building information and supporting faster, more informed decision-making.

Additionally, integrations with systems like CCTV with access to over 6,000 cameras allow for instant access to live-streaming video in and around buildings and on major roadways. These integrations reduce the need for manual data retrieval and greatly improve situational awareness, ensuring that responders have the most current information available so that they can provide the highest level of response.

The city has further enhanced public safety by using ArcGIS Indoors to map the locations of AEDs. What began as a request from Frisco’s purchasing and administration division for a map of AED locations within the city’s buildings, which would help staff assess risk levels, evolved into a mobile data collection app. Today staff collect and visualize AED locations in real time, communicating that information to callers and first responders and giving dispatchers a powerful tool to support emergency response.

Frisco’s commitment to continuous improvement is evident in its proactive data maintenance strategy. The city is embedding GIS into its change management and permitting processes, ensuring that updates to building layouts are captured and reflected in the indoor maps. This reliability is critical in emergencies, where outdated information can lead to delays or negative outcomes. Fire departments use mobile GIS tools to verify and update fire safety features in the field, with changes appearing immediately in the SAFER system—saving time and effort for GIS staff and improving emergency response.

The City of Frisco’s datacentric approach and focus on relationship building across departments are a model for resilient communities across the US. By integrating ArcGIS technologies across systems like SAFER, Frisco has built a resilient, efficient, and lifesaving geospatial system that continues to evolve with the city’s needs. The city’s approach demonstrates how continuous innovation and collaboration can deliver safer outcomes for the entire community.