The Dodge County Sheriff’s Office has announced the launch of Prepared Live in the dispatch center. Built by the company Prepared, the software enables 911 dispatch centers to live stream, receive multimedia, and receive location from mobile callers in real time. This addition to the technology suite will significantly improve the ability to
respond to emergencies effectively and efficiently throughout the entire county. In emergency situations, there are many cases where it is safer or more convenient for a person to communicate with 911 via text message rather than a phone call. With Prepared Live, dispatchers can send a quick text to hang-up callers to confirm their safety. There are additional circumstances under which 911 may then text a video link to the caller to get more information for responding units. We chose to implement Prepared Live to proactively address the number of 911 hang-up calls our dispatch center receives. Prepared Live also provides an exact GPS location of the emergency once the caller clicks the link sent by the 911 Communications Officer. Participation in video during a call is completely voluntary and consent of the caller is required. If the caller consents, they will receive a livestream link via text from the dispatcher enabling them to activate live video upon click. It is important to note that the video call function also does NOT provide the Dodge County Sheriff’s Office with access to the contents or settings of a caller’s phone. This launch follows 8 weeks of preparation and training to ensure that our dispatchers and our team can properly utilize the software. Working side by side with Prepared’s customer success team, we have created and adopted policies to ensure that Prepared Live is used effectively in various scenarios. Prepared, led by co-founders Mike, Dylan, and Neal, is a mission-driven organization with a passion for improving public safety. In creating an app to help mitigate school emergencies, the team discovered that valuable data is lost in existing 911 processes and set out to address the problem by inventing Prepared Live. Since its public launch in October of 2021, the product has helped protect over 40 million people in 48 states. To learn more about Prepared and Prepared Live, visit Prepared911.com
