It’s remarkable that, with all of the technological advancements of the past 20 years — including carrying smartphones in our pockets — we still call 911 the standard way in a crisis.
But a Manhattan-based company is working to vary that.
Using Prepared’s technology, when a user calls 911, an operator stays on the phone with them — but in addition sends a link to capture audio and video of what’s happening, to assist dispatchers and first responders.
“An image is price a thousand words so the power to text an image in a hearth that shows flames are blue shows it’s a chemical or hazmat fire,” co-founder Michael Chime told The Post. He noted that those sorts of fires require completely different responses and having advance info gives firefighters time to arrange.
In one more scenario, he said, people stranded on a cliff were in a position to send a video stream so rescue helicopters could more easily locate them.
“Residents are enabled and empowered to share what is going on in a situation and responders go in with full context,” Chime said.
This week, the corporate announced Apple’s upcoming iOS 18 update will let iPhone users making Emergency SOS calls to share videos and photos, even and not using a link, with 911 dispatch centers that use Prepared technology.
The corporate was born because co-founders Michael Chime, Dylan Gleicher and Neal Soni wanted to enhance public safety after growing up in areas affected by school shootings. Chime saw his community devastated by the Chardon High School in Chardon, Ohio, where a former student shot six students, killing three, in 2012. Gleicher and Soni grew up lower than quarter-hour from Sandy Hook Elementary in Sandy Hook, Conn., where 20 first-graders and 6 school staffers were shot dead that very same yr.
The three desired to create an app that may improve school safety by alerting police of energetic shooters, Prepared CEO Chime told The Post.
In 2020, all three dropped out of Yale during their junior yr, moved to Latest York City and, in three weeks, built an app to assist schools and 911 communicate.
But they were flummoxed by outdated technology utilized by 911 dispatchers, Chime said.
“As we tried to share data from schools with 911 we realized the emergency system is built on the belief everyone seems to be using landlines,” Chime, 26, said. “We wanted to construct the critical infrastructure first [before we could focus on school shootings].”
They got down to construct tech that may capitalize on the actual fact most callers are using smartphones — and might let emergency responders see it was happening at the opposite end of a 911 call.
By 2022, Prepared had built a platform that could possibly be installed in any dispatcher’s computer to point out details about what is happening at an emergency scene.
“You call 911 such as you normally would and the dispatcher has the Prepared platform up and running after which sends you a link,” Chime explains of how his technology works.
The link might be used to translate calls with non-English speakers, transcribe the conversation and transmit audio, video and photos of the scene. That information is recorded, summarized and relayed to first responders.
By the tip of 2022, Chime had sold their technology to a handful of Connecticut dispatchers.
The challenge, Chime said, is that many cities are hesitant to adopt a comparatively untested latest technology that would potentially complicate a response.
“They’re doing life saving work in order that they don’t wish to take a bet on something latest,” he explained.
But Chime said word of mouth has helped Prepared go from providing technology to lower than 30 call centers 4 years ago to around 1,000 now; greater than 20% of all dispatchers across the US have adopted the system.
The corporate, which is predicated in Manhattan’s Midtown East, has raised $35 million and hired greater than 50 people.
This story is a component of NYNext, a latest editorial series that highlights Latest York City innovation across industries, in addition to the personalities leading the way in which.
Latest York City dispatch centers still haven’t signed up for the technology. Regardless, Chime believes Latest York is the perfect place for his company, saying, “Latest York City is an incredible hub for innovators and it’s also an incredible hub to take into consideration public safety.”
“It’s a great place to ideate about solving public safety challenges … and it’s hard to think about a greater place to use it.”
