It has been more than 70 years since the first emergency telephone line was launched in London, and 999 is the number we all learn from a young age for police, fire, and ambulance in the UK.
Click here to view Figure 1.
But in a world where a telephone call is just one of many different ways we communicate with one another, could things be about to change?
Many local forces are already using social media (Twitter and Facebook in particular) in some rather creative ways. The West Midlands Police recently hosted a 24-hour tweetathon to expose time-wasting 999 calls. I first heard about this approach being used by the Greater Manchester Police back in 2010.
Departments have recognised that these sites can be powerful communication channels for sharing important information with the local community. But emergency services are also beginning to look seriously at how people are using their smartphones and other mobile devices and whether they can be used by the public to notify command and control centres about emergency situations.
People of my generation might be a little cynical about the prospect of using Twitter if our house is burning down. However, as the Deputy Commissioner of the London Fire Brigade, Rita Dexter, argued late last year when it announced plans to set up the world’s first 999 emergency Twitter feed:
When it was first set up in 1935, people said that dialling 999 to report emergencies would never work. Today BT handles over 30 million emergency calls each year. It’s time to look at new ways for people to report emergencies quickly and efficiently and social media could provide the answer in the future.
Txt “HELP” to 911
The US was behind the UK in the introduction of an emergency telephone number (911 was introduced in 1968), but it has been quick to recognise that voice calls are no longer the only way to raise the alert in an emergency.
The Federal Communications Commission announced plans for a Text-to-911 service in December 2012. The service will ultimately enable US citizens to send an SMS in situations where a voice call could endanger the caller, or when a person with disabilities cannot make a voice call.
Perhaps Twitter isn’t the ideal medium through which to report a life-or-death situation, but its potential power for two-way information sharing with the emergency services could have hugely valuable implications.
Take the awful helicopter crash in the Vauxhall area of London in January. There were eyewitness accounts, video footage, and photos (taken by people on their commute to work) all over social media. This information could prove vital in the post-incident investigation, and a well-publicised Twitter address with an associated hashtag — perhaps @999 or #londonheli in this instance — would provide a fast (possibly real-time) and efficient way for the public to share information with the emergency services.
The latest incident management systems used by many command and control centres can already accommodate this influx of information. Incident files can be appended with information from traditional sources such as telephone calls, CCTV footage, and social media posts to create a complete timeline of events. (Photos and videos from mobile devices are often time and location stamped.) This timeline enables investigators to piece together and reconstruct the incident quickly to reveal what happened, when, and why. With all emergency incidents, the faster you can act, the better the response and resolution.
I am keen to find out what approach the London Fire Bridge will take, but I give the last word to Rita Dexter: “With over a billion people now using Facebook and half a billion using Twitter, it’s quite clear that social media is here to stay.”
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As we have understood over the period of time that better connectivity produces quickest reponses in emergency services. Phone booth idea is thing of the past. Social media is spreading at an exponential pace. More and more people are coming online and utilizing Facebook and Twitter to put across their thoughts and information. Emergency services could become far more efficient if they incoroporated themselves with social media. Texts floated on message board offer fast purveyance of intended messages. Receiving Text messages ‘HELP’ on 911 by US emergency response teams have resulted in better deliverance to the benefit of people. Most… Read more »
This is certainly an interesting topic, and an area that will surely grow. There are already apps available for your smart-phone that can initiate an immediate response from the emergency services. The signals from the phone are simply monitored by the ARC, they try and call the phone, if no answer the position of the person can be tracked. Video and audio can be recorded from the phone, and all the user has to do to initiate an emergency situation is shake the phone. Now with all of these means to communicate and get the message out ASAP, the one… Read more »
Adrian you are right about the control of prank calls, texts and shakes. I think people are to be educated on the subject and a culture is to be generated. As a study goea in our region in a particular period of time total of around 6500 emergency calls were recieved and out of them 75% were found to be pranks which definitely an aspect to consider and educated about.
Adrian I have this question that different apps are available which can generate the signals to inform the LEAs of an area about the emergency. But as I know the mobile can only transmit when its network is available. How this emergency signal will be communivcated to LEAs once there is no signal available in the area. There must be some stand by arrangement?
Perhaps the mothballing of FiReControl was prescient after all. You don’t need a multi billion pound nationally networked comms system- just use twitter! Seriously though, very interesting view on how on the scene imagery, video and messages are date stamped and therefore hugely valuable resources for the emergency services. This proves the positive side of social media as a force for good. Take note David Cameron- this is the Big Society!
Great point Gerry. I can completely imagine the 3D visualisation of images and video. Sort of minority-report style. Wait, that film was ages ago. Maybe… Tron (the new one)
I think the predicament of prank text and tweets could be addressed by imposing heavy penalties on pranksters. People could be restrained from making such messages by law enforcement personnel .
Yes, but aren’t our police all busy enough as it is? Yes, people should be penalised but in the real world this isn’t going to happen very often, especially in a climate of world recession leading to public sector cuts the world over. Incidentally, I noticed a story today that showed that scientists were able to work out the source of the meteor that hit russia last week using footage from people’s smartphones. Obviously, using the location tag helped them build up a picture of the incident and rewind it virtually. Certainly, there are similar implications for how this could… Read more »
Rob correct narration. Same is the case which the USA police is going through in recreating or reliving the scenario of assasination of JFK. I have read it that the police have contacted all the people present in the vaccinity and having snaps of the incident. They are trying to create a virtual scene of the incident and tyry to find out how that episode unfold. Really a cpmmendable effort if they will succeed.
Its a shame the majority of fire services aren’t using twitter correctly. They seem to be just shouting information without prompting discussion. Twitter is not a strap line website. It is there to offer discussion. The police in Sussex do this very well and have a number of accounts doing great work to enhance their reputation.