PublicSafetyAPI

What the PublicSafetyAPI MCP server does

The PublicSafetyAPI MCP server exposes public safety facility lookups for MCP-compatible AI assistants. It connects to publicsafetyapi.dev and covers four facility types: fire, police, EMS, and hospital. The underlying data comes from federal HIFLD, USFA, and CMS sources and is described as public domain and commercially usable.

An assistant can search for facilities near a US street address or latitude and longitude, retrieve a complete facility record by ID, and filter broader searches by facility type, state, name, or ZIP code. Results can include addresses, phone numbers, and coordinates. Hospital records can also include bed counts, trauma level, and ownership.

How it works

The PublicSafetyAPI MCP server runs as a local MCP process and sends requests to the PublicSafetyAPI service using an API key. An AI assistant selects the appropriate tool based on the user’s request and receives structured JSON results.

Use find_stations_near_address when the input is a US street address. That operation performs the location lookup before finding nearby facilities. Use find_stations_near_coordinates when latitude and longitude are already available; it skips geocoding. The distance requested for a search can be used to find facilities within an area, such as a radius around a city center.

get_jurisdiction reports the city or town containing a location, or the county for an unincorporated location. It can also identify agencies of one selected facility type that are likely to serve that location. get_state_summary provides facility counts by type for a state.

Setup and configuration

Install the package with pip:

pip install publicsafetyapi-mcp

Alternatively, run it without a separate installation through uvx:

uvx publicsafetyapi-mcp

Set the PUBLICSAFETYAPI_KEY environment variable in the MCP client configuration. The README shows a stdio configuration using uvx publicsafetyapi-mcp for Claude Desktop, Cursor, and other MCP clients. A free API key is available from publicsafetyapi.dev with a stated allowance of 500 requests per month and no credit card requirement.

Tools and capabilities

The PublicSafetyAPI MCP server provides these tools:

• find_stations_near_address: Find nearby facilities for a US street address.
• find_stations_near_coordinates: Find nearby facilities from latitude and longitude without geocoding.
• get_station: Retrieve the full record for one facility by ID.
• list_stations: Search or list facilities by type, state, name, or ZIP code.
• get_jurisdiction: Determine the containing locality and likely agencies of one facility type.
• get_state_summary: Count facilities by type within a state.

These capabilities fit applications that need to locate emergency facilities, inspect facility details, compare facility counts across states, or determine which agencies may serve a location.

Limitations and notes

The service is focused on US facilities and US street addresses. The jurisdiction tool describes agencies as likely service providers rather than guaranteeing operational responsibility. The available data and returned fields depend on the underlying HIFLD, USFA, and CMS records. API access requires a key, and the documented free tier is limited to 500 requests per month.