About ClearStreet

ClearStreet is a phonetic street-name similarity and risk-scoring tool for 911 addressing and emergency dispatch workflows. It identifies street names that may sound too similar when spoken under emergency call conditions, and produces a defensible, auditable review queue addressing staff can act on.

This deployment

This instance is deployed for Sumter County. Contact the local addressing office for questions about specific street names, reservation requests, or screening outcomes.

What it does

Pre-screens new street names against existing centerlines for phonetic, spoken, and structural similarity.
Maintains a catalog of pre-approved street names that builders can shop from with one-click reservation requests.
Routes requests through staff approval with a full audit trail, automatic email notifications, and enforced reservation lifecycle (default 270 days, extendable to a 365-day total).
Honors NENA addressing conventions (directional prefix as full word for standard names; route-style letters preserved as letters) plus local pronunciation rules.

How names are graded

Each candidate gets a 0–100 risk score with a written explanation. The score combines phonetic similarity (Soundex, Double Metaphone, Jaro-Winkler), string-edit distance, and deterministic rule flags (same base / different directional, pluralization, qualifier-only difference, route-number proximity, initial-consonant-only difference). Weights live in config.py so reviewers can tune without code changes.

Five decision tiers map to score bands: PASS (< 60), REVIEW (60-74), PRIORITY REVIEW (75-84), HIGH RISK (85-94), AUDIO REQUIRED (≥ 95).

Who uses this

Addressing staff manage the catalog, review borderline cases, and approve or deny builder requests.
Builders / developers shop the available catalog or propose names directly, with real-time scoring feedback and a tracked request lifecycle.
Admins manage user accounts and notification settings, and have access to hard delete for catalog cleanup.

Documentation

A guide aimed at builders, suitable to print or email along with a name application, is bundled with the source code at docs/builder-handout.md. Operations staff should review docs/deployment.md for deployment, backup, and centerline-refresh procedures.