Dallas Calls for What3Words To Enhance Public Safety

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In the densely populated city of Dallas, TX, it can be difficult for rescue personnel to pinpoint the location of a person in need of assistance. To help zero in on a specific site, the Dallas Police Department and Dallas Fire-Rescue Department have officially adopted the use of the What3Words app. As GovTech reports, the app provides a level of precision that standard GPS lacks.

Cell phone triangulation in an urban location can be disrupted by interference and “drift” (i.e., the difference between your actual location and the location recorded by a GPS receiver) which can make it more difficult to track a call. The developers of the What3Words app rely on a proprietary geocode system that grids out an area and assigns a three word code to each square in the grid. A caller using the app can then provide the location code to responders. The developers state that the app results are correct within 3 meters, or a little under 10 feet. 

Robert Uribe, 911 communications and technology administrator for the Dallas Police Department commented, “Well, if we save one life, in the course of the entire use, just helping one person — that’s success to me.” On the additional training needed to use and incorporate this new tool, Uribe added, “Ultimately, we have to synthesize that information as a department, integrate it into our operational protocols, and then ensure that we effectively roll it out within what we do.”

“We give our technology away free to emergency services — to NGOs, charities, people who are doing good with the system — we give it to them for free. It’s the right thing to do,” said What3Words Chief Marketing Officer Giles Rhys Jones.

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