Tempe is using a new Smart911 phone system that allows people to customize personal information first responders receive when notified about an emergency. Tempe is the first Arizona city to try out the free program.
Tempe’s Police and Fire Departments are encouraging people to create personal profiles for city dispatchers that could include photos, self-descriptions and GPS coordinates about where they live.
Police spokesman Michael Pooley said when someone calls or texts Tempe 911 on their cell phone, that profile is immediately available to firefighters and officers joining the search for a missing person.
“That information including those photos of their children or possibly elderly people pop up on our dispatcher’s computer and with that they are able to take that photo and send it out, disseminate it to everybody that’s involved,” Pooley said.
He said the system keeps all personal information secure. Pooley said people in other Arizona cities can also create a profile for Tempe dispatchers at smart911.com.