County 911 service sees major update this fall
Butler County commissioners took a step this fall that Rob McLafferty, county 911 coordinator, called “truly an example of the county investing in public safety.”
“Butler County 911 was the first 911 center in the commonwealth,” he said, “and technology like this ensures that we continue to stay on top.”
On Sept. 13, commissioners approved a $13,500 one-year contract with Prepared Live Enhanced software, providing a comprehensive update to the county’s existing 911 services.
“Probably one of the biggest things that it does is live video from the scene,” McLafferty said. “Callers will be sent a link and, at their choice, they’ll be able to click on that link if they would like to share what they’re seeing.”
Steve Bicehouse, director of emergency services for the county, said the software would give callers the option to share remote access to both their cameras and microphone.
“Then dispatchers can actually see what’s going on at the scene,” McLafferty said. “And that can be used for something as simple as maybe a parking complaint to a large building on fire.”
Dispatchers can then relay the information to emergency responders, according to Bicehouse, with a future update allowing them to forward the live footage directly to responding departments.
“We’d be able to send it live, so they can start making operational decisions before anybody gets there,” he said.
The footage would also assist law enforcement as evidence, according to Bicehouse, in domestic and criminal cases.
McLafferty said the software would integrate with dispatchers’ existing RapidSOS software, allowing crews to quickly determine the callers location, and allow staff to take photos and video from the livestream.
“So now our dispatchers literally have eyes on the situation,” McLafferty said. “Where before we were relying on a citizen to provide that, now we truly have public safety professionals looking at what’s happening on screen.”
And while the addition of live video is a massive upgrade in its own right, Bicehouse said the new software would also add translation for 150 languages via text messaging.
“If we get a non-English speaking person who texts the 911 center — because we have the ability to text 911 right now — it will translate whatever language they text in,” he said. “And then the responses can be translated into their own language.”
McLafferty said the upgrade would also include automated hang-up check-ins.
“You can only imagine how many times we receive inadvertent phone calls,” he said. “Somebody bumps their phone, their Apple Watch, whatever, and it dials into the 911 center without them knowing.”
In the software’s current state, McLafferty said dispatchers are required to manually call back each inadvertent caller.
“Sometimes they answer and sometimes they don’t, but we’ll call them back and say, ‘Hey, your phone just dialed 911, is everything OK?’” he said. “And that obviously takes some time to do.”
The new automated check-in will help ease the burden on the already busy dispatchers, according to McLafferty, especially during “major events.”
“This software allows our dispatchers to click one button, and it’s going to call that phone number back with a prerecorded message that says something to effect of, ‘Your phone has just dialed 911, is there an emergency?’” he said.
Bicehouse said the software would also automatically respond to text messages, providing a resource for callers in restricted circumstances.
“Perhaps it’s a domestic situation or something where somebody can’t answer the phone, you can send a text and say, ‘If you need help, respond to this text or click this link,’” he said. “Then it would let the dispatchers know that somebody there needs help.”
McLafferty said the center was expecting full implementation in the coming weeks.
“We’ve been working to integrate it with the RapidSOS that we have now, and after that we’ll have to do some training,” he said.
