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Casper Police Department Introduces Video 9-1-1 Service

Casper Police Department Facebook page

The Casper Police Department (CPD) is offering a new optional video 9-1-1 service for the next 30 days. The service, called 911eye, will allow callers to share video and location data from their phone with emergency dispatchers.

"For example, if I'm witnessing a crime take place outside - maybe somebody is trying to burglarize a vehicle - if I call 9-1-1, we can actually talk through with the telecommunicator if the service would be valuable," Rebekah Ladd, Public Information Officer for CPD, said. " If I'm having a hard time maybe describing what I'm seeing or if the telecommunicator is thinking that that would be a valuable asset, the telecommunicator can send a link to the 9-1-1 caller's phone. And then the caller just clicks the link."

Callers aren't required to use 911eye, even if the operator requests it.

"It's not anything that we are forcing upon anybody. It's just another capability that we're trying out to try and provide as best service as we can to folks," Ladd said.

According to Ladd, the service will help emergency personnel determine the correct number and type of responders for a situation, which supports social distancing measures.

Capita, the company that developed 911eye, released it to emergency dispatchers for a free 30 days during the pandemic. If responders find the service useful, the CPD may adopt it permanently.

Have a question about this story? Contact the reporter, Ivy Engel, at iengel@uwyo.edu.

Ivy started as a science news intern in the summer of 2019 and has been hooked on broadcast ever since. Her internship was supported by the Wyoming EPSCoR Summer Science Journalism Internship program. In the spring of 2020, she virtually graduated from the University of Wyoming with a B.S. in biology with minors in journalism and business. When she’s not writing for WPR, she enjoys baking, reading, playing with her dog, and caring for her many plants.
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