Officials in Orange County are touting the use of new technology that helps first responders locate stranded people.
What3words is a global addressing system that divides the entire world into three 10×10 feet squares and assigns each of them a unique three-word name.
For example, upon entering “Hollywood Sign” into the search field, the exact square representing it has the code: “incomes.amount.formed.”
In a media release, the Orange County Sheriff’s Department stated that they deployed the technology on May 10, when they were contacted to assist in locating a missing mountain biker in the hills north of Yorba Linda who did not have much water and took a wrong turn.
The informant advised authorities that the biker, a 71-year-old man, may have been experiencing heat exhaustion due to extreme weather conditions, the sheriff’s department added.
Resources, including a motor deputy on a dual-sport motor vehicle and an airship, were dispatched to look for the man; however, he was not located, even though the motor deputy traveled more than six miles along a trail during the search efforts.
Hearing the original call for service, the department’s Real Time Operations Center used a new application, Prepared911, to assist in the search. The app utilizes technology that can send live video calls to a cell phone, and once a call is answered, the tech provides authorities with an accurate GPS location, the sheriff’s department stated.
“Even though there was an intermittent signal loss, RTOC was able to push a video call to the biker’s cell phone activating ‘What 3 Words’ and providing an accurate GPS location,” OCSD said of the May 10 rescue. “TROC shared the information with the Orange County Fire Authority’s rescue crews, who responded and rescued the biker.”
The biker, Jay Doyle, said the technology got him out of a dire situation compounded by the fact that he had run out of water.
“I honestly knew I was in trouble, but I didn’t realize how much trouble I was in,” Doyle, a Westminster resident, told KTLA.
OCSD Research Analyst Sarah Shirvany broke the technology down further to KTLA 5 Orange County Bureau Chief Chip Yost.
“At the time I launched Prepared911, I sent a link to [the biker’s] phone, and the link basically states: ‘This is the Orange County Sheriff’s Department and we’re requesting to link into your phone’,” Shirvany said. “Once the caller hits the link, it gives us permission to get a live feed [from] their phone.”
Click here for more information on Prepared911 and here for more information on what3words.
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