Butler County Emergency Services presented with AI for Good award at national conference
During this year’s National Emergency Number Association (NENA) conference in Columbus, Ohio, the public safety technology company RapidSOS presented Butler County Emergency Services with the “AI For Good” award for the successful integration of artificial intelligence technology into 911 dispatch and emergency response.
Butler County Emergency Services was one of two public safety agencies nationwide to receive the honor, with the other going to City of Reno Public Safety Dispatch in Nevada.
“This award belongs to our entire team,” said Steve Bicehouse, Butler County’s director of emergency services, in a news release issued Thursday, July 23. “Being recognized by RapidSOS reinforces that when AI is implemented with purpose and responsibility, it can have a meaningful impact on both emergency responders and the communities they protect.”
The award came as a major surprise to the two members of Butler County Emergency Services who attended the NENA conference — Bicehouse and Butler County 911 coordinator Rob McLafferty. The conference took place between Saturday, June 27 and Thursday, July 2.
“We were already scheduled to be there when we found out,” McLafferty said. “We were going there because it’s a national conference. We don't always make it, but this year it was close. Last year it was in California.”
Although Butler County has used technology from RapidSOS for several years now, it wasn’t until November that the county began using the company’s “Unite” platform, which introduced several new tools that streamline the process of responding to emergencies.
One of the most important features of Unite, according to McLafferty, is that it transcribes what callers are saying in real-time for other dispatchers in the room and can even translate the results for the dispatcher if the caller is not a native English speaker.
“If a dispatcher hears something that sounds like it's a major event, they can look at that transcription and see everything that's going on,” McLafferty said. “If somebody's calling in and they're speaking in a foreign language, we used to have to get a translator on the line to see what they were saying and there was a delay. With this information, we're able to see right away everything that person's saying, because it automatically translates all of it.”
The Unite system is also capable of providing dispatchers with real-time video of the emergency from the caller’s own cellphone.
“We've had fires where folks have called in and our call taker will send a link to them, and then they'll be able to see everything that person's seeing on their phone,” McLafferty said. “If that person accepts it, they'll send the link. They click on that link, and now we can see where the fire is at. We can see everything that your camera's showing you. That’s really important because all of our folks here have a background in public safety and they're able to relay that information to the public safety agencies out there.”
