Intrado, ShotSpotter Join Forces To Provide Real-Time Violent Crime Information
Gunfire rings out on a city street. Within seconds, a 9-1-1 Center knows the exact location of the gunfire, how many rounds were fired, and that a shootout is in progress: minutes before the first emergency call, if any, is placed to 9-1-1.
Intrado Inc., a subsidiary of West Corp. and provider of 9-1-1 technology solutions, today announced that ShotSpotter Inc. and its Gunshot Location System (GLS) have been certified to join the Intrado next-generation 9-1-1 data partner program. ShotSpotter is collaborating with Intrado using its patented acoustic surveillance and analytics technologies to send timely and precise geographically specific multimedia alerts with valuable situational intelligence directly to 9-1-1 Centers and first responders.
“After months of co-development and testing, we’re excited about launching our next-generation 9-1-1 implementation and partnership with Intrado,” said Ralph A. Clark, chief executive officer for ShotSpotter. “Working together we will enable public safety agencies to easily incorporate real-time, sensor-generated alerts and accumulated incident data as a part of their operational process. This information will result in a greater number of firearm confiscations, arrests and deterrence of criminal activity, making our communities and cities safer.”
Alerts of crimes-in-progress involving gunfire detected by the ShotSpotter GLS will be delivered in real time to 9-1-1 Centers over Intrado’s secure and reliable emergency services Internet Protocol network. With minimal training, call-takers and dispatchers can immediately process and respond to the alerts and provide first responders with actionable information to more safely approach and disarm hostile and dangerous situations. According to ShotSpotter system data, the alerts also allow 9-1-1 Centers to respond in the 50 to 75 percent of gunfire cases in which citizens do not call 9-1-1.
ShotSpotter has been certified to join the growing Intrado A9-1-1SM Alliance Member Program, a managed service program designed to upgrade the capabilities of 9-1-1 Centers by delivering a broader set of life-saving features across the U.S. The program creates an open marketplace for companies to significantly improve 9-1-1 responsiveness and throughput by integrating their solutions with Intrado, using open standard interfaces.
“By adding the ShotSpotter GLS to our suite of capabilities, 9-1-1 Centers and first responders will have the ability to enhance their responsiveness at the time of the crime. Public safety agencies will also be able to expand their investigative follow-up activities, such as correlating gunfire-related crimes with other data and events that may occur in a certain vicinity,” said Brian Davenport, vice president of product management for Intrado. “The rich multimedia alerts generated by the ShotSpotter GLS are an ideal complement and showcase for the crime-fighting and life-saving value of our emergency services network.”