In March, London Fire Brigade introduced new equipment which allows members of the public to use their phone cameras to beam footage directly into the control room.
Other features allow control room staff to request the caller’s live location, and to instigate instant messaging with live translation into over 100 languages. Many calls can now be resolved without referring to Language Line interpreters, which can take precious minutes to get set up.
For the first few months of the roll-out, control room officers were sending footage to any attending command unit or officer’s mobile device. From mid-June, command units now have direct access to the app, meaning they can see what control can see.
The technology is already used by the London Ambulance Service, the Metropolitan Police and the British Transport Police.
