School safety is one of the most critical public safety challenges facing communities today. Whether managing a major weather event, a medical emergency, or an act of violence, schools demand immediate, coordinated response.
Oftentimes the current system fails this test. While 80% of teachers and 73% of parents are confident in their school's emergency plans, a 2023 Motorola Solutions K-12 School Safety Report reveals a stark operational reality: over half of teachers (57%) still rely on calling the main office via a classroom phone in an emergency. This manual step creates unacceptable friction, failing to simultaneously loop in 911 telecommunicators and first responders who need to act in seconds.
This means that in the 911 workflow, critical intelligence may be fragmented or trapped across isolated databases, legacy CAD systems, and school-specific platforms. When lives are on the line, the delay caused by this lack of a unified, shared operating picture could be a threat multiplier.
The partnership between RapidDeploy and Rave Mobile Safety is built to help solve this problem by leveraging the power of Next Generation 911 (NG911) technology. By eliminating an information exchange gap, public safety teams can help ensure every response starts with immediate, intelligent data.
To read more about how RapidDeploy and Rave Mobile Safety are creating safer responses together, check out our blog post from May of this year, The Power of Shared Data: How California Is Boosting Officer Safety and Efficiency with Lightning.
Legislation like Alyssa's Law, which mandates public safety systems like silent panic alarms are directly linked to law enforcement, prioritizes and focuses on the need for faster, data-driven response to school emergencies.
While many solutions satisfy the technical mandate of the panic button, meeting the spirit of the law requires more than just an alert signal. It requires providing the receiving Public Safety Answering Point (PSAP) with authoritative, site-specific data—such as floor plans, access codes, and pre-incident plans—in real-time when the panic button is pushed.
However, while the alert would notify the PSAP, fragmented data means the critical context would remain stuck behind a separate school security system.
The combined technology suite of RapidDeploy and Rave, both a part of the Motorola Solutions ecosystem, bypasses this friction, ensuring the necessary data flows instantly to Radius Mapping, the cloud-native mapping platform used by 911. The resulting response is truly compliant and life-saving.
RapidDeploy’s partnership with Rave Mobile Safety brings their critical, real-time safety data directly into our core mapping and response platform, Radius Mapping.
This integration converts scattered information into immediate, actionable intelligence, achieving three core outcomes across the entire emergency workflow:
Unified View of Data: Telecommunicators instantly view all critical data—Rave Panic Button alerts, caller location, and authorized school floor plans—on a single, dynamic map.
Streamlined Mutual Aid: Cloud-based data sharing automates cross-jurisdictional collaboration, enabling seamless, real-time coordination between police, fire, and EMS.
Field Intelligence: First responders gain pre-arrival situational awareness via mobile applications like RapidDeploy’s Lightning mobile app, ensuring they have floor plans and critical location data before they even arrive at the scene.
To learn more about our partnership, download the RapidDeploy and Rave Safer Schools guide.
The foundation of cross-agency response is the ability to share Computer-Aided Dispatch (CAD) and resource data without manual intervention. This is the core function of Exchange Link, the integrated data-sharing solution powered by the RapidDeploy-Rave partnership.
Traditional mutual aid is bogged down by manual phone calls and radio communications. Exchange Link eliminates this operational friction by connecting adjacent Emergency Communication Centers (ECCs) and first responders in real-time:
Sharing CAD Events: Critical CAD incident locations and essential details (type, severity) are automatically published and displayed on the Radius map of neighboring, authorized ECCs. This ensures agencies responding under a mutual aid agreement see the exact scope and location of the incident instantly.
AVL Tracking: Real-time Automatic Vehicle Location (AVL) data from neighboring agency vehicles is visualized on the map. This capability allows telecommunicators to deploy the closest, most appropriate resource—regardless of jurisdictional boundary—significantly speeding up deployment.
Intelligent Data Control: A sophisticated, user-defined rules engine allows agencies to specify exactly which CAD data (based on incident type and severity) is automatically shared, maintaining policy adherence while guaranteeing critical information reaches collaborating partners.
This automation is indispensable during a school emergency, ensuring every agency involved in the multi-jurisdictional response is operating from the same validated data set.
A unified, cloud-native system turns a high-stress incident into a sequence of coordinated, data-informed actions:
Step 1: The Alert is Initiated
A teacher identifies an emergency and activates the Rave Panic Button on their mobile device, specifying the incident type (medical, fire, active assailant). The high-fidelity alert is transmitted instantly.
Step 2: Immediate Situational Awareness at 911
The Rave signal is routed directly into the RapidDeploy Radius Mapping platform. The telecommunicator immediately receives unparalleled context before ever needing to speak to a caller, including:
Precise Location: The room-level or building-specific location of the alert initiator via indoor positioning.
Contextual Map View: Authorized school floor plans are automatically overlaid onto the dynamic map, providing immediate, actionable intel on building layout and access points.
Pre-Loaded Data: The call window populates instantly with pre-plan data, including emergency contacts, key-holder lists, and potentially live video feeds (if integrated), giving 911 "virtual eyes on the scene."
Step 3: Automated Coordination
Two essential actions happen simultaneously:
School Mobilization (Rave): School staff and faculty are immediately notified of the incident type and location, allowing them to initiate safety protocols (lockdown, shelter-in-place) without delay.
Responder Mobilization (RapidDeploy): The telecommunicator dispatches units. Via Exchange Link, the CAD data is instantly shared with required adjacent agencies. First responders in the field, using the Lightning mobile app, see the exact location, floor plan, and real-time AVL data of their approaching partners.
By integrating the panic alert directly with the mapping and CAD infrastructure, this cloud-native approach ensures critical data is delivered without adding a single extra step to the 911 telecommunicator’s high-pressure workflow.
The measurable success of integrated NG911 solutions is faster, smarter, and safer response. By connecting panic button alerts with real-time location and mapping, one school district in Texas reported a 50% reduction in response times, leading to faster resolution of both security threats and medical emergencies.
This integration goes further by addressing complex communication needs. NextGen 911 tools like text-from-911 and live video streaming are becoming essential, especially in situations where verbal communication is impossible or dangerous. The data shows this shift: text-from-911 increased 118% and live video streaming increased 70% from 2022 to 2023 in RapidDeploy systems. These digital communication pathways are indispensable for safely communicating with individuals during an evolving incident.
To learn more about the impact of Next Generation 911 solutions on school safety, download our Ebook: Transforming School Safety with Next Generation 911 Solutions.
School emergencies are fluid and unpredictable. Relying on fragmented systems, paper pre-plans, or time-consuming phone calls creates dangerous friction that slows down response.
The partnership between RapidDeploy and Rave Mobile Safety leverages the cloud to build genuine public safety resilience. By unifying Rave’s authoritative safety data with RapidDeploy’s cloud-native mapping platform, we ensure every emergency response team—from the dispatcher in the ECC to the officer en route—receives the real-time, convergent intelligence needed for informed decisions and coordinated action.
In the mission of school safety, data accuracy and response speed are non-negotiable. With a unified, cloud-native approach, every second is optimized to protect students, staff, and our communities.
