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PowerPhone Unveils New System for Delivering Cell Phone Photos to 911...

Imagine you's8217;re a 9-1-1 dispatcher. A woman calls 9-1-1 from her cell phone to report a suspicious man in a shopping mall who's8217;s wearing a long overcoat in the middle of the summer.



Obviously, you's8217;d want to gather as much information from the caller as possible -- including a description of the person. But what if the caller could send you a picture of the man from her camera phone



PowerPhone, a leader in 9-1-1 training and technology, has unveiled a new system for delivering cell phone photos from 9-1-1 callers right to call handlers as part of its Total Response® Computer Aided Call Handling's8482; software. The new technology, called Cell Photo Delivery (CPD) was unveiled today at the 72nd Annual Conference of the Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials (APCO).



's8220;Technology is changing the rules when it comes to emergency response,'s8221; said Chris Salafia, PowerPhone's8217;s president and CEO. 's8220;Citizens are now the eyes and ears for our 9-1-1 operators -- and camera phone photos are going to be an important part of improving safety and security.



While some public safety agencies have started accepting cell phone photos to a generic e-mail address, PowerPhone's8217;s CPD system is the first that integrates these photos directly into a 9-1-1 call record.



PowerPhone's8217;s CPD system works like this: a citizen calls from his cell phone to report an emergency or suspicious activity -- let's8217;s say he's8217;s spotted a missing child who the police issued an Amber Alert for. The caller dials 9-1-1 to report the sighting and says he can send a picture of the child for verification. The call handler sends an e-mail message to the caller's8217;s cell phone from PowerPhone's8217;s Total Response® Computer Aided Call Handling's8482; software. The caller then replies to this message with the photo attached. Total Response stores the photo in the incident record for easy reference.



By following this process, the 9-1-1 center ensures that photos are linked with the appropriate records of the citizen's8217;s 9-1-1 call. Even more important, this process discourages citizens from randomly sending photos into the 9-1-1 center -- an arrangement that can lead to pranks and other abuses of the system.



's8220;The goal of Total Response software is to empower the 9-1-1 call handler while emergency responders are on their way to the scene,'s8221; said Salafia. 's8220;Our e-mail picture delivery system gives call handlers another tool that can help them save lives and improve safety and security in their communities.'s8221;



According to InfoTrends, a leading market research firm on digital imaging, of the 741 million cell phones in use worldwide, over 50% are camera phones. This number is expected to grow to 87% of phones in use by 2010.



In a recent study conducted by a leading European mobile communications retailer in conjunction with the London School of Economics, over 50% of respondents said they would use their camera phone to record evidence of a crime and 47% said they would take pictures of a crime in progress.



For more information on Total Response, visit www.powerphone.com.



About PowerPhone

Based in Madison, Connecticut, PowerPhone, Inc. is a leader in 9 1 1 training and technology. Founded in 1984, the company has trained more than 130,000 public safety professionals representing all 50 U.S. states and more than a dozen foreign countries. The maker of Computer Aided Call Handling (CACH) software, PowerPhone offers a wide range of products and services designed to empower public safety professionals to best manage calls for service.



Contact:

Greg Sheehan

Office: 203.245.8911 ext. 312

Cell: 203.464.2237

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