by Brian Uhler, ICU Technologies
Public safety and law enforcement are more complex than ever. Change pressures like budget, staffing, social unrest, and public expectations are all adding to the complexity of effective emergency response management. Police leaders in 2021, recognizing the need to take a fresh look at everything and lead through innovation, are looking for the best solutions for response management to help simplify and manage the complexities in policing. Consider a hypothetical department and you are the police chief. How would you answer these questions?
WOULD YOU LIKE TO:
These aren’t trick questions. Unequivocally, police leaders answer “yes” to each of these. They follow up with asking, “How do we achieve all of these?” And the answer is simply Live911.
Live911’s core concept, in fact, relies on its simplicity. Officers are able to hear nearby 911 calls in real time. A location “pin-drop” on a map interface gives the responders an accurate location for the caller. The pin even moves with caller if the caller is on a cell phone and moving. And if needed, geofencing allows officers to screen out 911 calls that are too far away.
With the location and actual real time audio, officers can start their response before being dispatched. Further, by hearing previously unavailable nuance, such as tone of voice and the underlying story, police responders can match their response to the actual situation instead of using the “assume the worst” mentality.
HERE’S HOW LIVE911 DELIVERS THOSE DESIRED OUTCOMES:
Call takers can do their job as they do it now – quickly assess, classify, make the CAD entry, which leads to resources being dispatched. Call takers then, keep the caller on the phone to ask more questions. Police units, hearing the call taker and the caller can adjust their response.
Live911 is being received by many as a de-escalation tool. Far too often, after-the-fact reviews of officer involved shooting lead to the criticism that mental health problems were mentioned on the 911 call, but officers didn’t de-escalate. With access to all available details provided in real-time, officers have the opportunity to tone-down or coordinate their response when warranted. And again, with access to the caller’s tone and language, the responding officers can more appropriately react because there are multiple ways to interpret how something is said. Live911 makes this kind of situational awareness possible.
In the United States, we have seen a terrible increase in violent crime. It has been painful to see stressed and understaffed law enforcement agencies struggle, but worse, the communities they serve live in fear. Live911 is among the most cutting-edge, innovative technology solutions jurisdictions can deploy to relieve some of the fear and deliver real measurable improvements.
If you are looking for a smart, affordable, innovative solution that will save lives and improve your law enforcement response significantly, I urge you to look closely at Live911.
About the Author
Brian T. Uhler served in virtually all law enforcement roles from Police Officer to Chief of Police in three diverse agencies (in Texas, serving a city of 285,000 people, and in two California agencies: the UCSF Police Department and South Lake Tahoe Police Department). He received his master’s degree in public administration from Texas A & M, Corpus Christi, and is an FBI National Academy graduate.
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