BOULDER, Colo. – The City of Boulder Police and Fire Communications Center is excited to announce that dispatchers will now be able to accept livestreaming video from callers.
This new service is in addition to the ability to text to 911 in an emergency. Both of these services will enhance first responders’ capabilities to respond quickly and appropriately to situations ranging from an active shooter to a wildfire to domestic violence.
“Prepared 911 takes out some of the guesswork in what’s happening,” Communications Manager Brad Riggin said. “Callers giving dispatchers the ability to actually see what they’re seeing in real time will help us better describe suspects, locations and what’s going on as police, fire and EMS are actively responding to the scene.”
With Prepared 911, which doesn’t cost the community anything, dispatchers can text a link to a caller’s cell phone. The caller must then hit approve to give Dispatch the permission to see and hear live video from their phone. Though Dispatch will be able to switch between the front and back facing cameras as well as turn the screen dark so no one can see it’s recording, they will not have the ability to see or do anything else on a person’s phone. The caller can also end the livestreaming at any time. The videos are saved in Prepared 911’s cloud, but dispatchers can take screenshots that are saved in dispatch CAD notes.
This new technology also allows dispatchers to send a location request to someone’s phone to help find them if they don’t know or can’t say where they are.
The City of Boulder has had the capability of texting “911” since 2017 and wanted to remind the community that if they’re in a situation where they feel unsafe and are unable to make a voice call, they can simply text 911 to reach a dispatcher.
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