911 maps being worked on in Owensboro

OWENSBORO, KY — Emergency responders say it can be hard to find the exact location of a 911 caller when they’re in an apartment. Owensboro 911 officials recognize that problem, and are fixing it.

When emergency responders are called out to a location, they say it’s usually easy to find, except when for apartment complexes.

911 Director Paul Nave says ”There’s a standardization in addressing so we know the odd is normally on one side and the even are on the other. They usually go in sequential order. Apartment complexes aren’t that easy.”

Officer Michael Hathaway says, “When officers arrive on scene to a particular street address that does not typically give them the actual location of the apartment itself.”

To eliminate the confusion, the 911 dispatch center has partnered with the local Geographical Information System to map all the apartment complexes in Owensboro.

GIS takes that field information and turns it into a map, and that map is then plugged into the 911 dispatch center program.

Nave says, ”It’ll bring me up a box that tells me it’s on the second floor. It’s on the first floor. It’s on the northwest corner.”

Now when emergency personnel respond, the dispatcher can tell them the exact location of the apartment instead of just the address.

Eventually all emergency response vehicles will have the exact location of the caller available to the responder on their vehicle computers, so dispatch won’t have to go into detail about the emergency, saving even more time.

Read the story here.

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