Public safety practitioners recognize the importance of GIS. This booklet provides practical advice on how to partner with the right community people to build a GIS that serves the needs of public safety. A GIS is an information system that understands location; it is intelligent and interactive. Creating, maintaining, and managing an effective information system is critical to the mission of today's emergency operations. Pages 4-7 of this guide describe a set of fundamental concepts and principles universal to a successful public safety GIS. Tabbed sections provide information on building the GIS; each tab represents a crucial phase: assessing needs, planning and using the system, and managing the system. A checklist is provided for each phase.