Super Bowl Security Team Using Technology Developed By St. Cloud Company

ST. CLOUD - When the Super Bowl events kick off in downtown Minneapolis in February a St. Cloud company will be a big part of the safety and security team. Geo-Comm has created new technology that will be utilized by the Minneapolis police department.

Guy Konietzko says they've developed a 911 system that provides 3D mapping for the inside of buildings.

A few years ago when the FCC came out with a ruling saying we had to start showing the location of cell phone calls indoors, we started working with St. Cloud State University to figure out what does that mean and what does that look like.  So we believed that started with a map. Not just an outdoor map, but an indoor map.  So we started to 3D model St. Cloud State University and in that process, we had to show location indoors.

Konietzko says, during testing at SCSU, they cut response times by 3-4 minutes. They've also used the program in Minneapolis at the X Games this summer in U.S. Bank Stadium and also during the Twin Cities Marathon.

The technology is roughly the same as what we used in the Twin Cities Marathon and the X Games this summer.  So that was kind of proof of concept that we could achieve what we wanted to, and it was successful in both cases.

It's a breakthrough in technology because 80 percent of all 911 calls come from cell phones. Traditional 911 mapping systems will show the building where the cell phone is calling, but not the specific location inside that building.

Geo-Comm is also in talks with the Sauk Rapids-Rice school district and could potentially launch the program at the high school by this spring.

Geo-Comm was founded in St. Cloud in 1995.  They have about 100 employees.  Their customers include local governments in over 45 states.