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NYC 911 to Accept Cellphone Pics and Video
SpaceAdmiral writes "New York City is developing a plan to allow images to be sent to 911 emergency operators from cellphones. This will likely give emergency operators better information to pass along to responders. They're also planning on implementing a program of street-corner video cameras, as seen in the city of London. According to John A. Feinblatt, Mayor Michael Bloomberg's criminal justice coordinator: 'The more information that the police have and the more quickly that they get it, the more likely that they are going to fight a crime.'" How practical do you think it is to expand this sort of project to cities across the country? Moreover, is it worth the expense?
There is a much better article on News.com.com: New York to use cell phone photographers to help fight crime
The service is to be implemented by PowerPhone which has a Press Release here: Technology delivers cell phone photos to 9-1-1 operators
Have you read my journal today?
As a followup to my vague, sourceless post, this article details some of the stats on Chicago's camera network, for those interested in what the cameras are about.
Street corner video cameras prety much everywhere in the UK from the smallest towns to the largest citys, We live under the eye of big brother over here
Paul Gogarty
Thanks for the pointer to the PowerPhone press release. What's interesting to me here is that this technology has a shelf life of maybe two years. As it stands, the Cell phone networks are moving from circuit-switched calls to voice over IP; with VoIP,
SIP signalling is used to connect the two end points with whatever types of media are negotiated. With that in place, you can
initially negotiate only the voice side (a codec like AMR or EVRC), then later issue a re-invite to negotiate video codecs (if appropriate). You can also use SIP's message service (A.K.A. SIMPLE) to send still photos; alternatively, many networks offer MMS, which is similar to email (except in charging model).
The number of SDOs already developing work for VoIP is very high: 3gpp and 3gpp2 (cell phone standards groups ); NENA (the
U.S. emergency folks), ETSI-EMTEL (the European emergency folks); the IETF (in the ECRIT working group, as well as the SIP and
SIPPING working groups).
I also am a fulltime FF/EMT. If there was one thing that cell phone users could do to help, it would be a law requiring callers to stay on the scene when they call in something. You would not believe the number of calls we get for a dead guy (who is really a drunk guy asleep against a building or a tired traveler sleeping in their car), smoke investigations which turn out to be smoke from a fire place, odor investigations which can not be found at all, car wrecks which can't be found. Many times we are sent on a wild goose chase because the information we got from the caller isn't enough for us to locate the complaint. Having the caller stick around to point out what they found or educate them on their stupid call in so they don't do it again would be great. I can see where it could be usefull for having pictures or video sent in. We have computers on our apparatuses that send us information from dispatch. Getting a picture of a reported sturcture fire where you can see flames coming out of the windows could aid in planning and requesting additional resources early. This is opposed to the call for a structure fire when its really just some dummy who left their beans on the stove too long and smoked up the whole apartment. One engine can take care of that instead of having an entire first alarm respond to take a smoking pot out of the building.
When you call 911 on a cell, your cell number comes with it, so it can be traced to you. On many phones, if there's a sufficient signal, your GPS coordinates may also be sent. There's enough there to provide deterrence from people abusing the system through false images, including possibly some extra penalties regarding fraudulent 911 calls.
You can never go home again... but I guess you can shop there.
There's a ten year old study that says that just having other citizens carry concealed weapons improves your safety overall. I've never heard a rebuttal that held any water. So, even if you don't want to carry a weapon yourself, you do want to live in a state that allows it. :)
Crime also went down in Kennesaw, GA (but increased in surrounding towns) in the decade following its passage of an ordinance that required each household in the town to own at least one servicable firearm. To those who claim that such an ordinance would be unfair by mandating the ownership of an object, it was purposely written to be full of exemptions - conscientious objectors, ex-convicts, etc were exempted. Nor has anyone actually been fined for not owning a weapon. But the law was designed to set an example to follow.
-b.
I'm not sure about anywhere else, but I know Baltimore, MD already has a system of "blue-light" cameras in place on some street corners (which would seem like a more relevant example than London, considering London isn't even in the United States).
Parent says: "this will: waste tax payer money, inconvenience innocent people, and have zero impact on actual criminals."
This has a significant impact on criminals. I speak from experience.
I own a business across the street from an unused building. For years it has been a site for heroin dealing, vandalism, muliple assults and batteries, and at least one mugging. I got a netcam, put the camera feed live on a web site, and informed anybody who cared to listen ( this included neighbors, cops, drug sellers and buyers, etc ). It took several months for people's behavior to change ( which was odd...I expected it to change almost overnight ) But now all we have is an occasional vagrant.
BTW, I share the concern, expressed by several posters, that cameras can be misused. The solution is to make them all public netcams, available to anyone with a browser. The cops can use information, but it is less likely for them to misuse it, because anybody could have copies.
I live in one of the largest cities in my state. It has a population of approximately 85,000. The police ask people to use 911 for all communication with the police, including noise complaints and other non-emergencies.
85,000 as one of the largest cities in a state sounds rather smallish from my perspective, sounds like Wyoming, or perhaps North Dakota. Don't get me wrong, good sized city, just I can't think of many states who's larger cities are smaller than 100,000.
But yes.... my point exactly. While "I" and others feel 911 shouldn't be used for trivial matters, it's actually up to the city to decide what proper use is.
Now on the flip side... I remember having my car stall in the dead of winter, on a mountain, no mobile save one phone call I borrowed from some friendly skiers. The one call was to a friend who I was trying to see, who decided driving 10 miles to rescue me wasn't a good idea because it started snowing. Rather than
1) Call 911, alert state patrol
2) Call the state patrol directly
3) Call the department of transprotion
4) Call a freaking cab
she did nothing. Needless to say on mountain passes reporting stalled vehicels is considered to be approperate use of 911 as they do present a danger not only to those in the vehicel, but to others using the freeway.
There is no sanctuary. There is no sanctuary. SHUT UP! There is no shut up. There is no shut up.
Your friend may not be your friend much longer when he's hit with a charge of making a fraudulent 911 call, or possibly aiding and abetting. In Indiana, the base crime is a class B misdemeanor (Indiana Code 35-44-2-2(c)), punishable by "imprison[ment] for a fixed term of not more than one hundred eighty (180) days; in addition, he may be fined not more than one thousand dollars ($1,000)" (IC 35-50-3-3). At that point, he may readily turn you over to avoid facing such a charge.
Prepaid phones still have information stored for the call record. While a prepaid phone may not require knowledge of the owner, its call log can still be acquired, and those who have been called from it may be asked who it belongs to. I suspect it will be pretty rare for someone to buy a prepaid phone simply to make false 911 calls, as that strikes me as more expensive than it's worth.
You can never go home again... but I guess you can shop there.