(Cincinnati, OH) - Life saving changes are coming to Cincinnati's Emergency Communication Center.
Council Member Amy Murray said the ECC is adding two programs which will help pinpoint the location of 911 callers.
She learned about both Smart 911 and Rapid SOS at the National Emergency Number Association conference that she attended last week in Nashville.
"If you have an I-Phone and if its upgraded to version IOS 12 they will be able to ping your phone exactly when you call 91, now this isn't in operation yet, but it is coming," said Murray.
Smart 911 is a system where people who live in the city can register and provide health and safety information about their families that dispatchers will have instant access to when their number comes up on the screen.
The improvements are designed to prevent another tragedy like the cities inability to get life-saving help to Kyle Plush who died after getting trapped in his van at Seven Hills School.
The Plush family was once again at City Hall this morning for the Law and Public Safety committee meeting to discuss call center improvements.
The family released the following statement Monday afternoon.
We want to show our support to the City Council which authorized two independent investigations into the tragic death of our remarkable son, Kyle.
Our family still has many unanswered questions. We want to know what went wrong on April 10 when Kyle placed two calls to 9-1-1 and provided the Center all the information needed to allow first responders to locate him and save his life.
The system failed Kyle on that day and we will continue to do all we can to make sure that does not happen to other families.
Clearly our current system must be changed but we want to make sure they are the right changes not simply the most expedient.
We support the City of Cincinnati moving forward with Smart911, an enhanced emergency data base that allows all of us to add valuable lifesaving information to our cell phone profiles.
Smart 911 is a positive step forward and will add an additional layer of safety for the 911 caller regardless of the system used.
We believe that the information the city is learning through attending the NENA conference and visiting different 911 Centers across the US to learn best practices will lead to meaningful change that will have a positive and lasting impact on the safety of all citizens of Cincinnati.
Last week, I attended the National Emergency Number Association Conference.
NENA’S mission is to improve 911 through research, training, education, outreach, and advocacy.
That is now our family’s mission as well---to do everything we can to ensure Cincinnati answers Kyle’s call to become home to the premier 911 call center in the nation.
Thank you.