LA Approves 911 Photo Software

At last night’s meeting, the Los Angeles Police Commission approved a plan to purchase software from PowerPhone Inc. that would implement the ability of 911 callers to send photos to dispatchers in connection with reporting incidents. The plan now moves on to the city’s Public Safety Committee for consideration. Several other cities, including New York, are considering such technology, so that photos of suspects, vehicles and other scenes could be collected from callers, possibly aiding an emergency response. PowerPhone’s Incident Linked Media solution addresses the issue of citizens randomly sending photos by using a request text-message system initiated by a dispatcher. Also read this story about the future system.