Thursday, December 26, 2024
Hawai'i Free Press

Current Articles | Archives

Thursday, September 10, 2015
'Smart911' Gives Your Profile to Emergency Responders
By News Release @ 6:40 PM :: 5159 Views :: Honolulu County, Health Care

Honolulu Is First in Hawaii to Enhance 9-1-1 Services with Smart911

Public Safety Officials Encourage Residents to Create a Safety Profile with New Service that Makes Emergency Responders More Effective and Provides Citizens with Greater Safety and Peace-of-Mind

News release from Smart911

FRAMINGHAM, Mass., Sept. 10, 2015 -- A man trapped in a house fire calls 9-1-1 but can't communicate. A young child dials 9-1-1 but can't answer the dispatcher's questions. A woman suffering from a medical condition calls 9-1-1 but falls unconscious. A frantic mother calls 9-1-1 to report her daughter missing. These are all instances when 9-1-1 dispatchers need additional information in order to send help to a person in need, and the time taken to find this information can be the difference between life and death.

Officials with Honolulu Police Department announced today that they have taken a step forward to enhance their emergency response services for all residents and visitors. Honolulu is the first location in Hawaii to implement Smart911, a free national public safety service that allows citizens to provide the information dispatchers need, before an emergency happens. Smart911 enables citizens to create a free Safety Profile online that can include any information about their household that they want 9-1-1 to have in an emergency.

"When someone calls 9-1-1 their safety profile automatically pops up on the dispatcher's display screen," said Louis Kealoha, chief of police, Honolulu Police Department. "This information can be quickly passed along to the emergency personnel responding to the scene. The additional information can shorten response times, increase officer safety, and ultimately save lives."

Smart911 allows citizens to create a Safety Profile at www.smart911.com for their household that includes any information they want 9-1-1 and response teams to have in the event of an emergency. When a citizen makes an emergency call, their Safety Profile is automatically displayed to the 9-1-1 call taker, allowing them to send the right response teams to the right location with the right information.  Responders can be aware of many details they would not have known previously, and now fire crews can arrive at a house fire knowing how many people live in the home and the location of bedrooms, EMS can be advised of allergies or specific medical conditions and police can have the photo of a missing child in seconds rather than minutes or hours.   

"A large percentage of our 9-1-1 calls provide little or no information for our dispatchers to act on," said Allan Nagata, acting major, Honolulu Police Department. "Whether the call was a misdial, the caller cannot communicate or the signal is lost, Smart911 immediately provides 9-1-1 call takers with details to better respond to many situations. We can now know the home address of a mobile phone caller, and our personnel can approach the scene of an emergency knowing more about a household, including pets that may be in the home, which provides greater safety for our officers."

Smart911 is currently available in 40 states and more than 1,500 municipalities. It has been credited with positively impacting emergency situations and saving lives across the U.S., including a missing child case in Arkansas, a heart attack victim in Tennessee and a man trapped in a house fire in Michigan. As a national service, anytime a person with a Smart911 Safety Profile dials 9-1-1 in any location in the U.S. that supports Smart911, their profile will automatically appear to dispatchers allowing for more information to be available at the time of an emergency.

Residents are encouraged to create their Safety Profile with Smart911 today to have their information immediately available to 9-1-1. Smart911 data is private and secure, and is only used for emergency responses and available in the event of an emergency call.

RELATED LINKS: http://www.smart911.com

COVERAGE:

SA: Emergency tool will inform city rescuers of callers’ vital data

KITV: Smart911 starts for Oahu

HNN: HPD unveils new 'Smart 911' system --The data can include information like how many people live in a home, their names and ages, and whether any of those people have medical conditions. It also can include photographs of those people, and even pets.

Police said a photo could come in handy if an older person goes missing.

"If you have that valuable picture already in, and you have a missing kupuna case, we can forward the information to officers in the field, which benefits everyone, including the missing kupuna," said Nagata.

HPD said residents can put in as much -- or as little -- information as they want. The makers of Smart 911 said the information is stored in a secure database.

"There's no way for 911 centers to look at the information, to search the information," said Jessica Rose of Rave Mobile Safety. "The only time it's ever viewed is when you log in to make changes on the website, or you actually call 911 and it pops up on the dispatcher's screen."

Rose said the system is already being used in 40 other states.

Links

TEXT "follow HawaiiFreePress" to 40404

Register to Vote

2aHawaii

Aloha Pregnancy Care Center

AntiPlanner

Antonio Gramsci Reading List

A Place for Women in Waipio

Ballotpedia Hawaii

Broken Trust

Build More Hawaiian Homes Working Group

Christian Homeschoolers of Hawaii

Cliff Slater's Second Opinion

DVids Hawaii

FIRE

Fix Oahu!

Frontline: The Fixers

Genetic Literacy Project

Grassroot Institute

Habele.org

Hawaii Aquarium Fish Report

Hawaii Aviation Preservation Society

Hawaii Catholic TV

Hawaii Christian Coalition

Hawaii Cigar Association

Hawaii ConCon Info

Hawaii Debt Clock

Hawaii Defense Foundation

Hawaii Family Forum

Hawaii Farmers and Ranchers United

Hawaii Farmer's Daughter

Hawaii Federation of Republican Women

Hawaii History Blog

Hawaii Jihadi Trial

Hawaii Legal News

Hawaii Legal Short-Term Rental Alliance

Hawaii Matters

Hawaii Military History

Hawaii's Partnership for Appropriate & Compassionate Care

Hawaii Public Charter School Network

Hawaii Rifle Association

Hawaii Shippers Council

Hawaii Together

HiFiCo

Hiram Fong Papers

Homeschool Legal Defense Hawaii

Honolulu Navy League

Honolulu Traffic

House Minority Blog

Imua TMT

Inouye-Kwock, NYT 1992

Inside the Nature Conservancy

Inverse Condemnation

July 4 in Hawaii

Land and Power in Hawaii

Lessons in Firearm Education

Lingle Years

Managed Care Matters -- Hawaii

MentalIllnessPolicy.org

Missile Defense Advocacy

MIS Veterans Hawaii

NAMI Hawaii

Natatorium.org

National Parents Org Hawaii

NFIB Hawaii News

NRA-ILA Hawaii

Obookiah

OHA Lies

Opt Out Today

Patients Rights Council Hawaii

Practical Policy Institute of Hawaii

Pritchett Cartoons

Pro-GMO Hawaii

RailRipoff.com

Rental by Owner Awareness Assn

Research Institute for Hawaii USA

Rick Hamada Show

RJ Rummel

School Choice in Hawaii

SenatorFong.com

Talking Tax

Tax Foundation of Hawaii

The Real Hanabusa

Time Out Honolulu

Trustee Akina KWO Columns

Waagey.org

West Maui Taxpayers Association

What Natalie Thinks

Whole Life Hawaii