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NYC 911 to Accept Cellphone Pics and Video

Posted by Zonk on from the looking-through-the-phone dept.

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?

7 of 251 comments (clear)

  1. Moo by Chacham · · Score: 5, Informative
    Note that Indiana is doing it first:

    Actually, the state of Indiana has already begun a plan to revamp its 911 networks and allow citizens to transmit images wirelessly to emergency responders.

    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?
    1. Re:Moo by ptbarnett · · Score: 4, Informative
      The service is to be implemented by PowerPhone which has a Press Release here: Technology delivers cell phone photos to 9-1-1 operators

      I just read the article, which says:

      PowerPhone's ILM system works like this: a citizen calls from his cell phone to report an emergency or suspicious activity-for example, a suspicious person dumping chemicals in a subway station. The caller dials 9-1-1 to report the sighting and says he can send a picture of the man to help identify him. The call handler sends a text message to the caller's cell phone requesting the photo. The caller then replies to this message with the photo attached. PowerPhone's ILM system stores the photo in an incident record for easy reference. The image can be forwarded to responders who are on their way to the scene.

      By following this process, the 9-1-1 center ensures that photos are linked with the appropriate records of the citizen's 9-1-1 call. Even more important, this process discourages citizens from randomly sending photos into the 9-1-1 center-an arrangement that can lead to pranks and other abuses of the system.

      Did they bother to check to test how many cell phones can actually do this? I just tried it with my Motorola Razr, and I don't have the ability to attach a photo to a reply.

  2. Re:In answer to your question ... by chicagotypewriter · · Score: 4, Informative

    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.

  3. Cell phones and 911 by p2ranger · · Score: 3, Informative

    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.

  4. Re:Right != ability by sgtrock · · Score: 3, Informative

    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. :)

  5. Re:Right != ability by b0s0z0ku · · Score: 3, Informative
    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.

  6. Impact on criminals by Harmonious+Botch · · Score: 3, Informative

    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.