Kuar.org
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — State officials and representatives of fire, police and EMS first responders announced Monday at the state capitol a new emergency call system called “Smart911.” They say Arkansas is the first state in the country to implement the system statewide. With the new system 911 operators will be able to see data about a caller’s address, family members or medical condition the caller has added to the Smart911 database.
“Photographs of yourself, your child; you can put photographs of your pet, your home, your vehicle in there; addresses of your home, your workplace, your vacation home … anything you want to share with first responders is the type of information that’s made available,” Andrew Gutteridge, a sales associate with Smart911, said. That might sound like a lot of information to give out, but participation in the service is voluntary.
John Swanson, executive director of Metropolitan Emergency Medical Services, says with the large amount of people who only have mobile phones, the service can be crucial, especially when trying to find someone who is alone and unconscious. He related an occasion of a man who made an emergency call from his cell phone in his apartment and then passed out. EMTs had to search the apartment complex door-to-door to find the man until they heard his cell phone ringing through a door. Had the man been registered to the Smart911 system, Swanson said EMTs would have been able to go directly to the man’s apartment.