Butler had Pennsylvania’s first countywide 911 center, and a recent contract will help keep it on the cutting edge.

In the Wednesday, Oct. 11, Butler Eagle, we learned about a $13,500 contract Butler County commissioners approved in September with a company that will offer major upgrades to the system. There are a few new features the upgrades will make possible, but the most important is that callers will soon have the ability to share video using their smartphone.

The software will let dispatchers send a link to the caller, who can then choose to use that link to share both video and audio feeds.

“Then dispatchers can actually see what’s going on at the scene,” Rob McLafferty, county 911 coordinator, said. “And that can be used for something as simple as maybe a parking complaint to a large building on fire.”

A future update also will let dispatchers share that video feed with crews responding to the call, so they’ll have a sense of what’s happening before they arrive. As McLafferty pointed out, that means police, EMTs and firefighters can see for themselves what’s going on, as opposed to relying on what a caller tells them.

Another major upgrade is to the ability to text 911. Residents have been able to text 911 instead of calling for more than a year now, and the new upgrade will add 150 language translation options.

That means when people send a text in a language other than English, it will be automatically translated for dispatchers, and their responses will be automatically translated as well.

Another big upgrade will be handling mistaken or hang-up calls. Dispatchers regularly get inadvertent calls, and they have to call back each one to make sure there isn’t an emergency.

The new software will dial phones automatically with a message asking if they had intended to call 911. And people who are trying to get help in a potentially dangerous situation will also be protected.

People who text 911 will get a text back instead of a call, McLafferty said.

“Perhaps it’s a domestic situation or something where somebody can’t answer the phone, you can send a text and say, ‘If you need help, respond to this text or click this link,’” he said. “Then it would let the dispatchers know that somebody there needs help.”

The upgrades will be in place in the coming weeks, and the county deserves real credit for keeping up with technology to keep residents safe.

— JK