Chicago lets citizens send video, photos to 911
Chicago has become the first U.S. city to allow residents calling 911 to send photos and videos of the incidents from their cell phones, officials say.
From the Chicago Sun-Times: Chicago has become the first U.S. city to allow residents calling 911 to send photos and videos of the incidents from their cell phones, officials say.
All the images are sent to the police department’s crime-prevention information center, which reviews them to see whether they should be distributed to first responders or detectives investigating the incident.
The office began accepting the images from residents in September as part of a pilot program. So far, the city has received more than 40 images from callers. Most of them show property damage.
Call takers don’t ask the 911 callers whether they have any images because the city does not want the call takers to waste time explaining how to send a picture.
