Agenda item

Ged Basson, Senior Operations Manager, North West Fire Control (NWFC), provided the Committee with a presentation regarding 999eye.

999eye Emergency Streaming enabled a 999 caller with a smartphone to stream live footage, direct from their phone's camera, into North West Fire Control Room, providing vital live footage that allows operators to make more informed decisions on mobilising the right resources. It provides GPS locations to the control room, and recorded footage.

Ged Basson explained that 999eye was originally developed by firefighters in the West Midlands and sold to Capita. It was a web-based product and NWFC could request that callers send them images when they were experiencing a fire so NWFC could risk assess whether the predetermined attendance set by the Service was adequate.

The software would operate by sending a message to the caller’s mobile phone, the caller would then click on the link and the call operator could then see through the phone’s camera. This gave the operator situational awareness of the incident although there were some incidents where this would not be used i.e., where someone was seriously injured. Where callers had difficulty speaking, they could communicate by text messaging and live chat. The software could also be used to help locate callers by using the mobile phone’s operating system. This would improve call handling times, and therefore, response times.

A trial of the 999eye software was currently taking place with Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service. Once NWFC received the results, they could demonstrate the software’s benefits and introduce it to all the Fire and Rescue Services.

In response to a question from Councillor Smith in relation to NWFC using ‘What 3 Words’, Ged Basson advised that ‘What 3 Words’ was a web-based package where a link could be sent to callers, or they could give the 3 words if they have that information, which they use to help locate them. Hopefully, the 999eye software would be available next year, however, ‘What 3 Words’ was an additional tool.

County Councillor Singleton questioned whether the signal to the mobile phone would determine the time it would take to receive the text message from the call handler. Ged Basson responded that the text message would be sent instantaneously, depending on the caller’s network it would work as fast as the caller could accept the text message, they would click on the link which took them to webpage to accept the information and they could then start the video. He added that the software should be a lot quicker when using the mainframe system in the control room. The Deputy Chief Fire Officer explained to Members that the 999eye technology would be used whilst fire engines were already on route to an incident and could help pinpoint the exact location. The software could also give the call handler situational awareness to help them make an informed decision about resources needed. Ged Basson assured Members that a 3-step approach was taken to mobilising fire engines; stage 1 was identifying the location, stage 2 was getting the resources moving out, and stage 3 was then asking secondary questions.

In response to a question from Councillor Z. Khan regarding calls from a landline, Ged Basson informed that the software would not work with landline and it would only work with a mobile phone. If the caller did not have a lot of data on their phone, they could take pictures but the software needed access to the phone’s camera.

County Councillor Woollam queried whether fire crews would also have access to the video. Ged Basson explained that, at present, it would just be the control room who could see the video for their own assessment for dynamic mobilising. There was a share option on the software to send the video to officers’ mobile phones, however, he was unsure whether technology was available in the pumps which would allow them to receive video images. It was anticipated that the technology would be available in future as part of the Emergency Service Network that NWFC would be moving to in the next few years.

RESOLVED :- That the Performance Committee noted the available technology and supported its roll-out to LFRS.