NOW AVAILABLE ON YOUTUBE: DOWN TO EARTH: MAPPED SAFE FOR 911
Down to Earth, a surveying reality series, shows how real professionals capture reality and turn it into real deliverables, even when the mission is urgent and the stakes are high.
Fenstermaker, NEI, and Lafayette Parish 911 Partner to Create Digital School Maps That Give First Responders a Head Start When Seconds Count
When an emergency call comes in, details matter, and so does time. In this three-part Down to Earth edition, follow Fenstermaker, NEI, the Lafayette Parish School System, and Lafayette Parish 911 as they take on a critical mission: mapping every public and private school across the parish, inside and out, to help police, fire, and EMS crews respond faster and smarter.
Using the TrueView GO handheld LiDAR scanner and LP360 software, the team captures complete interior and exterior scans, then turns that data into 911-ready deliverables, including detailed point clouds, floor plans, and GIS layers that can be accessed through the 911 Computer Aided Dispatch system.
“Everyone recognized that a mapping system was needed for schools,” said Craig Stansbury, Director at Lafayette Parish 911. “Schools and children are some of our most vulnerable populations. Being able to see accurate digital maps in our units before we arrive means first responders can plan their route, know exactly where to go, and get there as quickly as possible to render aid.”
Watch Episode 1 below:
In Episode 1, you’ll meet Fenstermaker, a third generation, family owned engineering and surveying firm operating in Louisiana, Mississippi, New Mexico, and Texas. What started as an asset management and security initiative quickly evolved into something bigger: a complete digital mapping program designed to get accurate school layouts into the hands of first responders.
“Data is king, but it has to be usable,” said Coy LeBlanc, Remote Sensing Scientist at Fenstermaker. “With the TrueView GO, we can walk a classroom once and know it’s fully captured. We’re scanning schools in record time and turning that data into floor plans that 911 can trust when the call comes in.”
Watch Episode 2 below:
Episode 2 heads into the field at Westminster Christian Academy and other schools throughout Lafayette Parish. See how quickly the team can deploy the TrueView GO, connect to the tablet, and start capturing classrooms, hallways, and building exteriors with a workflow built for speed.
NEI played a key role in getting the program off the ground.
“As soon as we heard what Fenstermaker was doing, our sales team realized the TrueView GO was the perfect match,” said Mark Forsyth, Director of Sales at NEI. “We delivered the system, completed training the same day, and within three days they were in schools capturing data and importing it into their internal systems. The speed and efficiency were exactly what this project demanded.”
Watch Episode 3 below:
In Episode 3, the action moves from the hallways to the office, where raw TrueView GO data becomes 911 ready deliverables. Fenstermaker imports scan cycles into LP360, uses control points to tighten accuracy, and stitches multiple scans into one clean, comprehensive LAS dataset per school.
From there, the data flows into tools like Autodesk Recap, Revit, and ArcGIS Pro to create 2D floor plans and GIS layers that Lafayette Parish 911 can load into an indoor viewer for responders.
“From a 911 perspective, our main goal was to get these school maps into our CAD and onto the computers in our vehicles,” said Stansbury. “Now responders can see the layout on their tablets before they even arrive, plan their route to a problem area, and make better decisions under pressure. Fenstermaker and their technology partners made that possible.”
Down to Earth: Mapped Safe for 911 demonstrates how combining handheld LiDAR, LP360, and GIS can create a scalable blueprint for school safety, one that other parishes, counties, and agencies can follow.