By Victoria “NIKE” De Dios
Mindful of the importance of managing emergency situations that pose danger, injuries, and risk of death requires immediate response and management, the Philippine National Police gears up to enhance its response capacity.
Recently, the E911 National Office through its executive director Francis Fajardo has facilitated the trial of a cutting-edge, next-generation 911 system by the PNP that will provide it with world-class emergency response capabilities like that used in the US and Europe.
Taking his cue from the current administration’s focus on quick response and resilience in the face of disasters and emergencies, and the directive of DILG Secretary Benjamin Abalos’ to make the national emergency program adapt to the digital age by making it useful for all forms of public emergency calls countrywide, the Executive Director has asked NGA 911 (Next Generation Advanced 911)/NGCS to provide the national police with its patented call handling system.
NGA 911 LLC (Next Generation Advanced 911) is the global innovator of the emergency calling technology and leader in next generation emergency communications worldwide, with NGA 911 Philippines/NGCS as its subsidiary.
The state of the art NGA 911 call handling system will let the PNP respond to distress calls and provide emergency response in unprecedented speed with accurate pinpointing of location.
NG911 is a digital, internet protocol (IP)-based system that will replace the analog 911 infrastructure that’s been around for decades. The call handling system that will be trialed by the PNP will include the hardware, software, data and all the procedures and policies that relate to answering every emergency request for help.
Emergency number services will be enhanced by creating a faster, more resilient system that allows digital information (e.g., voice, photos, videos, text messages) to flow seamlessly from the public, through the 911 network and eventually, directly to first responders.
Robert Llaguno, Country Head of NGA 911 Philippines says “The unique features of NGA’s technology; that is, IoT capabilities, international, global standards; resiliency and redundancy and the ability to provide the accurate location of the caller, will give the national police the capability to respond efficiently and accurately to emergency callers. For example, when someone calls 911, the location of that particular caller is immediately provided and the search radius is limited to just about 5 yards with 90% accuracy. “
“On top of that, NGA technology is able to integrate various types of available systems or applications. We can integrate with local government’s CCTV systems and provide enhanced location and situational awareness for front liners and first responders. We can integrate with instant messaging applications and provide an omnichannel queue. Emergency 911 services can now be accessed through SMS or instant messaging apps, targeting the millennial population of our nation. NGA’s technology is also fully redundant and telco-agnostic, providing 99.999% of uninterrupted service and an uptime guarantee. It will future-proof the emergency response capabilities of the PNP,” Llaguno explained.
At the moment, the town of Morong, Rizal is the first municipality in the country and in Southeast Asia to harness NGA 911’s next generation advanced technology to provide leveled up public safety and service to its residents. Alaminos, Pangasinan, Cagayan De Oro City and Cebu City will soon also have their next generation emergency response command centers in place.