Emergency telephone operators now have another tool to use when people call 911 from Cranston, Providence, Warwick or Newport: They can see bird’s-eye-view pictures from five different angles of the location from which the caller is dialing.
The technology, called pictometry, went into use this summer. When a call goes into 911 from one of those four cities, the operator can click on a map of the location and see a picture of the site. The pictures were taken by Vermont-based microDATA GIS Inc. using low-flying Cessnas with five cameras embedded in the bodies of the planes. The pictures were taken at an altitude between 3,000 and 5,000 feet.
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So detailed are the photographs that dispatchers can see entrances to buildings, fire escapes and the building’s dimensions. Call operators can zoom in and out of neighborhoods.
“Pictometry would be helpful in a hostage situation, large-scale fire or a chemical leak situation,” said Raymond LaBelle, executive director of the Rhode Island E 9-1-1 Emergency Telephone System.
All 911 calls placed in the state go to the call center on Smith Street in North Providence. The dispatcher there then connects the call to the appropriate police, fire or ambulance department and then provides that division with information during the call.
The community pictometry views can help police and fire departments determine where to set up roadblocks. In a fire situation, a dispatcher can use computer tools to measure the height of a building, the distance between a structure and a fire hydrant or other pertinent distances.
“The distance function is helpful because the operator can tell the fire department how much hose they’ll need,” said Gregory M. Scungio, training and operations officer of E 9-1-1. The pictures were taken during the spring while there were fewer leaves on the trees to afford clearer views.
Even though the pictures are high-resolution, things like license plate numbers aren’t visible, Scungio said.
Eventually, all 39 cities and towns in the state will have pictometry. Updates of the picture database, which contains tens of thousands of photos, will be taken every two years.
“We’re used to only seeing pictures of one angle of the buildings … this shows detailed data,” Scungio said. The 911 technicians will all receive a full-day’s worth of training in using the new technology. A new, larger server will be installed to handle the volume of pictures and make the system run more smoothly.
Twelve communities in Rhode Island have digital photos of buildings filed in the database. Those without geo-coding still have maps appear on the dispatcher’s screen when they dial 911. Even cell phone calls – which account for roughly 50 percent of the calls that go into the center – will usually show on the map from where a call is being placed. The latitude and longitude of the cell call are displayed on the screen.
“We can tell within several meters where the call is coming from,” Scungio said.
For a call center that received 562,000 emergency calls in 2004, every added technology allows operators to handle calls more effectively. Scungio said the center fields about 1,800 calls per day. The highest call volumes are on Friday and Saturday nights during the summer. The 4 p.m.-to-midnight shift usually receives 800 calls.
“It’s important that (the technicians) have enough data to make good decisions,” LaBelle said.
