As previously reported in Inside Towers, overlapping jurisdictions, especially near international borders, can create response time snafus for local emergency personnel. A public-safety answering point (PSAP), like a 911 center, using RapidSOS’s Jurisdiction View software can now help identify a call originating in southern Arizona versus northern Mexico and match the appropriate response team with the caller, reports Urgent Communications.
The Chandler, AZ police force relies on Jurisdiction View when 911 calls come in. Running call information through the Query View filter first identifies specifics of the caller’s location before connecting to the 911 dispatcher quickly and in real time.
Senior vice president and general manager of public safety at RapidSOS Tom Guthrie, stated, “It’s not the calls, because we’re not a call-taking system; we are supplementary data to the calls. So, the dots on the map that you’re seeing [via Jurisdiction View] are the appearance of data from our clearinghouse from our input providers,” he said. “It gives you a full view of your jurisdiction and the distribution of those calls coming in. That’s the situational-awareness piece.”
“Jurisdiction View actually provided so much more information that it was pretty much a game-changer,” said Michelle Potts, communications manager for the Chandler, Arizona police department. “What we like is that … the enhanced data that is in there – like MedicAlert and Uber – is all in one central place. It’s kind of a dashboard for anything that’s coming.
Incoming calls can provide valuable information, even if the caller is unable to speak. “Even if the call doesn’t go through, the fact that a call was attempted may well go through for us,” Guthrie said. “So, even if you’ve got a temporary outage, you’re going to see data that came in about call attempts. If a PSAP still had outbound, 10-digit calling, they could call those callers back.”
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