OHIO – Technology in schools helps protect thousands of students in emergency situations each year.
“911 Inform is connected to a school’s technology, which includes all cameras, doors, paging systems and phones,” said Ivo Allen, CEO of 911 Inform. “So when an emergency occurs, whether it’s a 911 call, panic button or other triggering event, 911 Inform connects the caller in real time with police and all school personnel.”
He said the technology also allows dispatchers to see callers when they are in view of cameras, giving them the ability to track someone through a building.
“Everyone is throwing more and more software at schools, but it’s never used in an emergency. In a typical medical emergency or a school shooting, the whole thing is over in eight minutes,” Allen said.
Essentially, first responders have no way to see or know what’s happening at an accident scene in real time. Allen saw this as a broken system and decided to do something about it. Now the system is in schools across the country, including in Ohio.
“We’re seeing about a 60 percent reduction in response time to emergencies,” Allen said. “If there’s a fight in the cafeteria, a football game, or a mental health issue, people can pick up the phone, dial a code or push a button and trigger a medical emergency of tremendous importance,” Allen said.
