Emergency teams in New York Plan to use cell phone images to fight crime

Emergency services teams running the 911 system in New York are planning to extend the system to accept incoming images from cell phone users at the scene.

The current system handles 11 million calls every year and some experts are worried that operators will become overwhelmed with data.

"It sounds like a good idea because it's technically doable and because it makes sense and other areas are doing it," said Alan Reiter, a wireless data consultant. "The downside is getting swamped with photos."

Officials in charge of the project are not as concerned. They say that a huge amount of data is already being processed every day and that a relatively small number of images will not be too much extra burden.

The initiative will involve 911 facilities being given the technology to accept photos and videos and tag them to the record of each emergency.

There is no timetable for when the service will go live but experts are predicting costs running to millions of dollars and a few years of development.

Network capacity is one issue although they are hoping to solve that by blocking messages whenever bandwidth becomes an issue.

The number of potential applications is huge. A spokesman for one of the leading technology companies said. For eaxmple in a hit-and-run incident today, a witness may see only a few numbers on a license plate and get a rough description of a car. Compare that to getting a description of a hit-and-run and a photograph of the car. The bottom line is that we're going to be able to apprehend somebody much more quickly.

Source : www.mad4mobilephones.com