PALM BEACH, Fla. — New technology is allowing emergency responders on Palm Beach get critical information faster than ever before.
The police and fire departments just rolled out a program called "Prepared Live" which allows 911 callers to text and livestream with dispatchers in emergency situations. The goal is to take the technology county-wide.
When Palm Beach police dispatch supervisor Marlene Peralta takes a call, she now has a new level of awareness.
"Prepared Live" allows dispatchers to send a text to a caller's cell phone, giving permission to access their camera and location during an emergency.
"Having that timely information helps us with decision making along the way and throughout the whole incident," said Capt. Will Rothrock of the Palm Beach Police Department.
Rothrock said this technology could help the police department solve cases faster and get real-time information they never had before.
"You may have a crime in progress and you may be able to see the actual crime taking place or an accurate suspect description, which we don't always get after the fact," Rothrock said.
To show you how it works, WPTV journalist Stephanie Susskind called the Palm Beach Police Department's non-emergency line.
"I'm going to send you a link that's going to give me access to your front and back camera," Peralta told Susskind.
The text showed up on Susskind's phone. Once she clicked on it and granted permission, Peralta was able to see everything Susskind was seeing. Peralta knew exactly where Susskind was and what she was looking at.
"It will show every time she moves as well," Peralta said. "So it shows she was inside the building and came out and now is toward south county."
As far as privacy, you only share what you choose.
"Once you've disconnected from the 'Prepared Live' program, it is no longer collecting any information from your phone," Rothrock said. "It's not an app that is downloaded. We will have the information, if needed, for evidentiary purposes, if needed. But we're not continuing to take information from someone's phone."
"It's a game changer, purely from the perspective of you are getting a responder right there with you on the scene," said Palm Beach assistant fire chief Sean Baker.
Baker said a few clips of video or even a photo can change the way firefighters and paramedics respond to everything from a fire to a medical emergency.
"The paramedics that are going to a call can do assessments and start pulling protocols and moving their treatment toward that before we even get on scene," Baker said.
Both agencies said it's only a matter of time before "Prepared Live" helps save someone's life.
"We're leveraging technology to put our responders on scene faster to make the community safer," Baker said.
Palm Beach County leaders said they are researching the technology to see if it's something that should be adopted county-wide.
For more information about "Prepared Live," click here.
