Police to trial new tech for emergency calls

THE Avon & Somerset Police force are set to trial a new technology for emergency calls that will help them get critical medical and personal details, as well as the precise location of callers, that could save lives. 

The police force report,   “UK emergency control rooms are to benefit from a ground-breaking partnership between the world’s first emergency response data platform, RapidSOS, and location technology company what3words.

“Avon & Somerset Police are first to adopt the technology ahead of nationwide rollout in 2021. 

“Through the RapidSOS platform, emergency call handlers in the UK will be able to gather critical health data from callers as well as their accurate what3words location. This will provide police, ambulance, and fire services with the information needed to quickly dispatch the appropriate resources to the caller in need and can ultimately save lives.

“The RapidSOS platform securely and automatically links life-saving emergency intelligence data from connected devices directly to the UK’s emergency services. Meanwhile, what3words has given every 3-meter square a unique identifier made of three random words. This means that any location can be communicated using just three words. what3words provides the accuracy of GPS coordinates in a human-friendly format that is easier to communicate and less prone to error than long strings of numbers.

“Communicating the right location in an emergency is crucial, but not always easy. Street addresses today do not always point to precise locations, and many parts of the UK do not have an address, such as parks, forests and coastlines. Moreover, control rooms in the UK and around the world rely on the limited information a phone call can provide, resulting in delays in dispatching responders to the scene.

“With this partnership, when a caller dials 999, the what3words address of the caller’s current location will be securely delivered to the emergency control room via RapidSOS. Call handlers will be able to see this information displayed directly on their screens via the RapidSOS platform. RapidSOS will continue to update the call handler with the caller’s latest what3words address, in the event that the caller is mobile. Emergency call handlers can then pass the what3words address to field responders. The caller does not need to have the what3words app on their smartphone in order for this information to be relayed via RapidSOS.

Sam Sheppard at Avon & Somerset Police commented, “RapidSOS and the integration with what3words will take location data to the next level for emergency services. This partnership will provide critical location information quickly and accurately when it’s needed the most. 

“Our control room will be better equipped to deal with calls for help when the location information may have previously been a challenge to get. We will have the technology that will allow us to dispatch quickly to an accurate location with a range of supplementary information that will inform our units prior to arriving on scene. This will save valuable time and save lives.”

“In an emergency, there are often many stakeholders involved in coordinating a response.  By having one precise, easily communicable what3words address, multiple teams can pass the location amongst each other seamlessly and provide help faster,”’ adds Patrick Arbuthnott, UK Emergency Services Partnership Lead.

“‘The emergency services already do phenomenal work, but any additional tools we can provide them to make their job easier is something we’re incredibly humbled to do.”