Saving Lives & Shutting Down Threats in FL School District via EMMA and SmartCop Integration

source：einnews.com

In under a second, a button press on EMMA will provide alert notifications to public safety officials and the dispatch software. EMMA is a mobile and PC-friendly public safety application that allows connected devices of the school and staff to send alerts and improve communication plus ensure the 911 dispatch communications center is included in alerting.

Putnam County 911 Communications Bureau Chief, Captain Kuleski says, “EMMA integrates seamlessly into our 911 public safety communications center for more effective first response and emergency management. EMMA’s integration with our SmartCop dispatch software improves knowledge and communication with an instant alert. The alert goes not only to our 911 center dispatch software but instantly is pushed to our public safety officers via their in-car mobile CAD terminals (MCT) to improve response times and eliminate or significantly decrease threat impact. We are pleased with how SmartCop and EMMA worked together to complete our needs.“

EMMA has a full offering of prevention, response, and management features for very critical emergencies or everyday communications that impact the staff and students in Putnam County, Florida’s county-wide school district.

All such systems must integrate with local public safety answering point infrastructure to transmit 911 calls and mobile activations. With this partnership, SmartCop is Alyssa’s Law compatible for the dispatch center panel. However, a unique offering is that SmartCop automatically pushes the EMMA alert instantly to all public safety officer devices for improved arrival of feet on the ground without human or dispatcher delayed delivery and the alert.

Of note is that with the successful integration of SmartCop and EMMA, Putnam County is the most recent school district in Florida to comply with Florida’s Alyssa’s Law According to recent data, approximately 35% of school districts in Florida have yet to achieve compliance and successful 911 integration with mobile panic alert systems.

Alyssa’s Alert, synonymously aligned with Alyssa’s Law, is legislation (and pending legislation) that aims to improve the response time of law enforcement during emergencies in public schools — is the designation of a mobile panic alert system capable of connecting diverse emergency services technologies to ensure real-time coordination between multiple first responder agencies.This instant alert includes accurate GPS location details, without cell tower triangulation delays, as well as the address and campus description plus other key data regarding the threat.

Targeted alerts and responses can occur in a defined geographic area of the school district through the GPS geofencing and mapping feature within EMMA’s unique notification system. Alerts target only those in an impacted area versus a large irrelevant geography. In addition, those receiving alerts can also respond, which is over and above any capability of the US 911 Wireless Emergency Alert Network and current technology of dispatch centers. EMMA provides significant upgrades to public safety officials, over and above the required Alyssa’s Law requirements. This feature ensures proper communication spreads to those that need to act immediately, without cell tower or potential overburdened 911 call system delays. Michael Snyder, Director of Sales and Marketing for SmartCop sums up the benefits, “We believe that getting information quickly and efficiently into the hands of public safety responders is critical to resolving issues peacefully. The implementation at Putnam County of EMMA and SmartCOP ensures that first responders have critical, decision-making information as soon as it is available.”

EMMA was developed by Think Safe as a system that solved a long-standing problem of emergency communication at workplaces and schools, especially across large geographic areas and populations. Think Safe’s data analysis of workplace and school medical and other emergencies led Company President, Paula Wickham, to question why smart devices and PCs could not be utilized more effectively to solve this problem. “Time is precious, seconds and minutes matter. This is especially true in emergency events or threats. Reliance on only using a smartphone to dial 911 is inefficient. Smart devices and connected PCs are valuable tools that can be part of the solution if