Medford 1st in State to Launch ‘Smart 911’

During a press conference held Thursday, February 27, 2014 at the Medford Police Station, Mayor Michael McGlynn announced Medford has implemented Smart911, the national public safety service that provides more effective emergency response. Joined by Chief of Police Leo Sacco and Fire Chief Frank Giliberti Jr., officials detailed how this service gives citizens the opportunity to be proactive about their family’s safety by providing vital details to 9-1-1 prior to an emergency, enabling responders to act more quickly and precisely during a crisis.

“We take great pride in providing the best possible public safety services to our residents, businesses and visitors in Medford,” said Mayor McGlynn. “By embracing this new technology that has already proven successful all across the state and country, we are giving citizens the power to engage and communicate with our public safety agencies in an entirely new way, which during an emergency can save time and ultimately lives.”

Smart911 allows citizens to create a Safety Profile at www.smart911.com for their household that includes any information they want 9-1-1 and response teams to have in the event of an emergency. When a citizen makes an emergency call, their Safety Profile is automatically displayed to the 9-1-1 call taker, allowing them to send the right response teams to the right location with the right information. Responders can be aware of many details they would not have known previously: fire crews can arrive at a house fire knowing how many people live in the home and the location of bedrooms, EMS can be advised of allergies or specific medical conditions, and police can have the photo of a missing child in seconds rather than minutes or hours.

“During any type of emergency, having the necessary details to understand the situation and then dispatch the appropriate response is of vital importance,” said Chief Sacco. “A citizen’s Safety Profile can provide information that would affect officers approach to a location or the course of treatment and our response teams can now arrive on scene better prepared to respond to the individual in need.”

“What many people don’t realize is how important even the smallest details can be in our response,” said Chief Giliberti. “Being able to identify a house by its color, knowing access points, where bedrooms are located and even how many people and animals are in the home greatly affects our response and our ability to not only locate but then assist our residents .”

In addition to providing 9-1-1 with these vital details, citizens can also opt to provide some information to town emergency management officials to plan for and respond to disasters, including weather emergencies. In the event of severe conditions such as a blizzard, freezing temperatures or even a hurricane, town officials can easily determine which residents rely on power for medical needs in the event of an outage, which residents may need assistance evacuating their homes and other emergency needs.

Introduced nearly three years ago by Framingham-based Rave Mobile Safety, the trusted software partner for campus and public safety, Smart911 has been adopted in 32 states and more than 450 municipalities. It has been credited with positively impacting emergency situations across the U.S., including a missing child case in Arkansas, and saving lives, such as a heart attack victim in Nashville. In Massachusetts Smart911 is available in Milford, Framingham, Blackstone and Stoughton.

“We are very proud to see Smart911 expanding across the country and especially throughout Massachusetts,” said Tom Axbey, president and CEO, Rave Mobile Safety. “Medford has always provided the best possible public safety services for their community, and we are proud to be working with them to further enhance their already superior efforts.”

Residents are encouraged to create their free Safety Profile with Smart911 today to have their information immediately available to 9-1-1. Smart911 data is private and secure, is only used for emergency responses and available to the 9-1-1 system in the event of an emergency call.

– Information from City of Medford website.