Guernsey County Improving The Way 911 Calls Operate

Cambridge, OH- You can Facetime your friends and family, why not 911? Thanks to a recently passed levy, the citizens of Guernsey County will be able to live chat directly with a dispatcher during an emergency. 

“Partnering with Carbyne, this is going to give the community better access to 911 services and also first responders better access to what is going on with the video feed that this system is going to provide,” Sheriff Jeffrey D. Paden stated.

This next generation APEX system is already in place and saved a life for a 911 call that involved an adult male having a seizure.

“The dispatcher asked the caller to allow video into the dispatch center and he was able to determine that he was not in a good position. He was actually laying down with his face on the ground, so it’s not going to allow adequate breathing. So, he was able to instruct the caller hey, let’s turn him onto his side, that way if there’s any fluid in his mouth, it can drain out or so he can get adequate air flow,’” said dispatch supervisor Jeff Hannon.

The way it works is enhanced GPS data from your smartphone sends your location. There is no need to depend on the triangulation from the cell phone towers, which is much more accurate.

“We were absolutely amazed with how simplistic it was for our citizens to receive these text links. So, they create a 911 call, our system will email them a link, they click the link via text message and it opens up right to a browser page with permissions to allow us to your camera and your location and that’s it, then the phone is established back to dispatch and it’s live,” said Kenny Mathews, Guernsey County IT Director. 

The advanced location information they get, called bread crumbs, everytime you move, it will tell the dispatcher. They can see which direction a person is traveling, if they are in a car or on foot. Mathews explains this system also allows for texting if making a call is not possible.

“In Guernsey County, we do text to 911, so, in a situation where someone is held hostage or held against their will, they can text 911 and then we can send that link all silent and allow them to gain the benefits of the APEX system all while not creating an actual phone call.”

There is only access to your video and location during the call. Once the call is done, they no longer have access. This is the first system of its kind in Ohio.