NYC Emergency Hot Line Systems Get Upgraded

by Marco Chiappetta — Wednesday, September 10, 2008, 12:02 PM EDT

With camera phones, text messaging, and e-mail now ubiquitous, it was only a matter of time before antiquated emergency systems were upgraded to take advantage of these technologies. Making good on a promise made during a State of the City address, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg has just announced that NYC's emergency and customer service hotlines are now able to accept photos and videos.

"I built a business on the idea that we could improve companies' performance by delivering better information instantaneously, and I've tried to bring that same philosophy to government," said Mayor Bloomberg. "By upgrading 911 and 311 to accept photos and video, we are bringing government accountability - and crime-fighting - to a whole new level. If your cell phone is equipped with a camera - and many are these days - you might be able to get a picture of something that will help the police solve a crime."

Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly, DoITT Commissioner Paul J. Cosgrave

The police operators that staff the 911 call center have been trained to enter a special code in the Police Department's internal communications system every time callers offer photographs or videos in connection with their emergency. The operators have also been trained to inform callers that a detective will be contacting them directly. The coded entry into the communications system automatically alerts the Real Time Crime Center and provides the 911 caller's telephone number. A detective from the Real Time Call Center will personally call the victim or witness and provide a Real Time Crime Center address to which the photograph or video may be sent. Depending on the case, the images may be shared widely with the public, with police officers on patrol, individual detectives or other law enforcement agencies.

The New York City Police Department receives approximately 11 million 911 calls annually and the 311 Customer Service Center receives approximately 15 million calls each year. With call volumes like that, these upgrades to the hot line systems could require massive amounts of storage. Someone get Western Digital on the line...

Tags: systems, system, Upgrade, Merge, MS, emergency, nyc, STEM, hot, Mer, eme

Marco Chiappetta

Marco's interest in computing and technology dates all the way back to his early childhood. Even before being exposed to the Commodore P.E.T. and later the Commodore 64 in the early ‘80s, he was interested in electricity and electronics, and he still has the modded AFX cars and shop-worn soldering irons to prove it. Once he got his hands on his own Commodore 64, however, computing became Marco's passion. Throughout his academic and professional lives, Marco has worked with virtually every major platform from the TRS-80 and Amiga, to today's high end, multi-core servers. Over the years, he has worked in many fields related to technology and computing, including system design, assembly and sales, professional quality assurance testing, and technical writing. In addition to being the Managing Editor here at HotHardware for close to 15 years, Marco is also a freelance writer whose work has been published in a number of PC and technology related print publications and he is a regular fixture on HotHardware’s own Two and a Half Geeks webcast. - Contact: marco(at)hothardware(dot)com