British emergency services adopt a Ghanaian-style digital addressing system | General news

More than a year after Ghana 's launch of a locally designed digital addressing system, UK police forces and the UK' s emergency services have announced the initial launch. of a digital addressing application (what3words) intended to help them in their operations.

The adoption of the digital addressing system, according to the UK authorities, should make it possible to locate more precisely places and people in case of emergency and to improve the delivery of services.

Sam Sheppard, of the Avon Police & Somerset, one of the first forces to allow what3words in his systems, said: "… the integration of this type of technology into our command system and control has changed the way we are able to handle incidents where the location is not known. We are moving away from the old style of questioning: "Where are you from?", "Where are you going?", "What can you see?" These questions take time and are not always as accurate.

"Requesting a numeric address or sending an SMS so that we can easily provide their 3-word address has saved us valuable time on locating incidents." The control room staff, who used what3words for a call 39, urgency, said how easy it was and they could find the site much faster than they could have done before.

Like GhanaPostGPS, callers in some parts of the UK can now generate and give an address over the phone when they call 999/911. The help will then be sent directly to this specific location.

According to the British media, seven local forces are piloting the system, with call managers helping users to find their current digital address on the application. The address will then be used by the control room to identify the precise location and send help exactly where it is needed.

Avon & Somerset Police, West Yorkshire Police, Humberside Police and Emergency Services, including the British Transport Police and the Hertfordshire Fire Department, the service of Cambridgeshire Fire and the Bedfordshire Fire Department are collaborating with the new digital address system. The address system provides callers with a simple way to tell exactly where help is needed and allows these forces to get resources directly to the scene.

The system has been used successfully by the UK's emergency services to find a stray child, pick up a calf stuck in the mud and find two missing people in a landscaped park.

Ghana set up a digital address system (GPS Ghanapost) more than a year ago across the country and has by far advanced countries such as the United Kingdom in this area.