News Talk 94.1/AM 1600 Where The Upper Cumberland Talks
Jackson County has upgraded its 911 service, with a system that gets resident information to dispatchers as soon as they call.
911 Director Michael Smith said the RapidSOS pings 911 calls and relays the information to dispatch, even if the 911 system goes down. However, Smith said the system truly works when residents fill out their emergency health profile online.
“Where their address is, if they have dogs or cats in their house, if they have any kind of medical problems, what kind of vehicle they drive,” Smith said. “Just stuff to help us and it populates on this screen.”
Smith said all residents have to do is visit emergencyprofile.org. Smith said this is critical in a rural community, since the system can store emergency contact information for isolated or elderly residents.
He said if residents leave the county and need help in an emergency, the information travels with them since 92 percent of dispatch centers have RapidSOS.
Smith said this even assists in general county safety.
“RapidSOS also partners with a lot of the schools that have their security system,” Smith said. “So if there’s a fire alarm or an active shooter alarm or something inside the school system, we get that information. It can also populate video if the school systems play a part in that or even like a bank or something like that. It will show the inside cameras if we get a 911 call from there to let us know what’s going on.”
Smith said the 911 department first saw the RapidSOS system used during the Christmas Day bombing in Nashville. He said that when systems were down, if someone placed a 911 call it would place a ping on a map and leave a call back number for the 911 department.
