NYC 911 to Accept Cellphone Pics and Video 251
SpaceAdmiral writes "New York City is developing a plan to allow images to be sent to 911 emergency operators from cellphones. This will likely give emergency operators better information to pass along to responders. They're also planning on implementing a program of street-corner video cameras, as seen in the city of London. According to John A. Feinblatt, Mayor Michael Bloomberg's criminal justice coordinator: 'The more information that the police have and the more quickly that they get it, the more likely that they are going to fight a crime.'" How practical do you think it is to expand this sort of project to cities across the country? Moreover, is it worth the expense?
Moo (Score:5, Informative)
There is a much better article on News.com.com [com.com]: New York to use cell phone photographers to help fight crime [com.com]
The service is to be implemented by PowerPhone [powerphone.com] which has a Press Release here: Technology delivers cell phone photos to 9-1-1 operators [powerphone.com]
Re:In answer to your question ... (Score:4, Informative)
Street corner video camers only in london????? (Score:2, Informative)
re: Powerphone (Score:1, Informative)
SIP signalling is used to connect the two end points with whatever types of media are negotiated. With that in place, you can
initially negotiate only the voice side (a codec like AMR or EVRC), then later issue a re-invite to negotiate video codecs (if appropriate). You can also use SIP's message service (A.K.A. SIMPLE) to send still photos; alternatively, many networks offer MMS, which is similar to email (except in charging model).
The number of SDOs already developing work for VoIP is very high: 3gpp and 3gpp2 (cell phone standards groups ); NENA (the
U.S. emergency folks), ETSI-EMTEL (the European emergency folks); the IETF (in the ECRIT working group, as well as the SIP and
SIPPING working groups).
Re:Moo (Score:5, Informative)
I just read the article, which says:
PowerPhone's ILM system works like this: a citizen calls from his cell phone to report an emergency or suspicious activity-for example, a suspicious person dumping chemicals in a subway station. The caller dials 9-1-1 to report the sighting and says he can send a picture of the man to help identify him. The call handler sends a text message to the caller's cell phone requesting the photo. The caller then replies to this message with the photo attached. PowerPhone's ILM system stores the photo in an incident record for easy reference. The image can be forwarded to responders who are on their way to the scene.
By following this process, the 9-1-1 center ensures that photos are linked with the appropriate records of the citizen'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.
Did they bother to check to test how many cell phones can actually do this? I just tried it with my Motorola Razr, and I don't have the ability to attach a photo to a reply.
Cell phones and 911 (Score:3, Informative)
Re:911 Abuse: The Next Generation (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Right != ability (Score:4, Informative)
Re:I dunno.... (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Right != ability (Score:4, Informative)
Crime also went down in Kennesaw, GA (but increased in surrounding towns) in the decade following its passage of an ordinance that required each household in the town to own at least one servicable firearm. To those who claim that such an ordinance would be unfair by mandating the ownership of an object, it was purposely written to be full of exemptions - conscientious objectors, ex-convicts, etc were exempted. Nor has anyone actually been fined for not owning a weapon. But the law was designed to set an example to follow.
-b.
Baltimore already has cameras... (Score:2, Informative)
Impact on criminals (Score:4, Informative)
This has a significant impact on criminals. I speak from experience.
I own a business across the street from an unused building. For years it has been a site for heroin dealing, vandalism, muliple assults and batteries, and at least one mugging. I got a netcam, put the camera feed live on a web site, and informed anybody who cared to listen ( this included neighbors, cops, drug sellers and buyers, etc ). It took several months for people's behavior to change ( which was odd...I expected it to change almost overnight ) But now all we have is an occasional vagrant.
BTW, I share the concern, expressed by several posters, that cameras can be misused. The solution is to make them all public netcams, available to anyone with a browser. The cops can use information, but it is less likely for them to misuse it, because anybody could have copies.
Re:911 Abuse: The Next Generation (Score:3, Informative)
85,000 as one of the largest cities in a state sounds rather smallish from my perspective, sounds like Wyoming, or perhaps North Dakota. Don't get me wrong, good sized city, just I can't think of many states who's larger cities are smaller than 100,000.
But yes.... my point exactly. While "I" and others feel 911 shouldn't be used for trivial matters, it's actually up to the city to decide what proper use is.
Now on the flip side... I remember having my car stall in the dead of winter, on a mountain, no mobile save one phone call I borrowed from some friendly skiers. The one call was to a friend who I was trying to see, who decided driving 10 miles to rescue me wasn't a good idea because it started snowing. Rather than
1) Call 911, alert state patrol
2) Call the state patrol directly
3) Call the department of transprotion
4) Call a freaking cab
she did nothing. Needless to say on mountain passes reporting stalled vehicels is considered to be approperate use of 911 as they do present a danger not only to those in the vehicel, but to others using the freeway.
Re:911 Abuse: The Next Generation (Score:3, Informative)
Prepaid phones still have information stored for the call record. While a prepaid phone may not require knowledge of the owner, its call log can still be acquired, and those who have been called from it may be asked who it belongs to. I suspect it will be pretty rare for someone to buy a prepaid phone simply to make false 911 calls, as that strikes me as more expensive than it's worth.