ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. – A new way to respond to emergency calls is on the horizon for Orange County.
Sheriff Mina is preparing his deputies for the introduction of “Live 911,” a technology designed to enhance safety in the county.
“Live 911 is a digital platform that will allow our deputies to receive 9-1-1calls in real time,” Sheriff Mina explained. “So in other words, the deputies driving around in his or her area and they’ll actually hear the 911 calling in.”
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Orange County has approved a $271,000 purchase for this system.
“I’m very excited about it. I think the community should be excited about it,” Mina said.
Mina tells News 6 that Orange County receives between 1,800 to 3,300 emergency calls daily and while Live 911 will not change these call numbers, he is confident it will reduce response times.
Other counties, like Volusia, have seen success with this system, reducing response times to mere seconds, a future Sheriff Mina envisions for Orange County.
“You have the deputy driving down the street and he hears that call two blocks over. It can be 10s,” Mina noted. “Seconds matter, when people need help, when people are bleeding when there’s danger, seconds actually matter.”
“Live 911″ is location-based, allowing deputies to set their desired call radius.
“He or she will only hear the calls in their designated area and that’s the beauty of it,” Mina explained.
Deputies can also communicate with dispatchers to gather crucial details to improve their response.
“They said there was a gun. Where’s the gun? What type of gun is it? You know, all that’s very important information for the deputies are actually going to be going into that dangerous situation of walking up on that house or that car,” Mina added.
Sheriff Mina anticipates that “Live 911″ will be operational within two-to-three months.
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