VOLUSIA COUNTY, Fla. – Deputies in Volusia County have now had a new 911 technology for a year in their vehicles and Sheriff Mike Chitwood said it has been a game-changer for their response times.
News 6 first told you about the “LIVE 911″ system last year. It lets deputies hear the 911 call in real-time instead of them having to wait for a dispatcher to send them to a location.
The sheriff said in many situations, the system has cut their response time to just seconds.
“When a call comes in, you’re looking at anywhere from two to four minutes before it gets fully dispatched out there. Now with this, it’s instantaneous,” he said.
[EXCLUSIVE: Become a News 6 Insider (it’s FREE) | PINIT! Share your photos]
News 6 first told you about the “LIVE 911″ system last year. It lets deputies hear the 911 call in real-time instead of them having to wait for a dispatcher to send them to a location.
Catching a car thief while they were still in the vehicle, a hit-and-run suspect seconds after a crash, and rescuing swimmers at the beach right before they would have drowned were just a few of the examples Chitwood gave showing how it’s made a major difference.
“The radio is constantly chattering and there was a lot of time where they had downtime and now to be able to hear that call come in and say ‘Oh wait a minute, I’m two blocks away or I just drove by that neighborhood’ and make that U-turn and go back. That’s where the big play comes in,” he said.
The deputies can set a radius, so they get calls close to their location. The dispatcher still does the talking with the caller, but the deputies can listen.
“They’ll tell the dispatcher that, ‘I just want to let you know I just jumped the 9-1-1 call, here’s what’s going on’,” said Chitwood.
The sheriff said it hasn’t changed the dispatchers' workload but said since the deputies are listening, they are able to ask the dispatcher to ask the caller more questions if more details are needed.
He said all of their patrol cars, crime suppression team, and their K-9 units now have it.
“In our line of work, speed is everything. The quicker you can get there with accurate information, the more likely you are to make an arrest and keep yourself safe and the community safe in the process,” he said.
Get today’s headlines in minutes with Your Florida Daily: