New emergency-communications system to integrate cross-jurisdictional data into one digital space

Over the last two decades, the emergency-management community has recognized that natural disasters and other emergency situations don’t always follow county lines or town borders. Interagency collaboration is vital—mutual-aid agreements expand the capacity of first responders, for example, and data-sharing solutions can give local telecommunicators regionwide data at the click of a mouse button. 

One such cloud-based advancement scheduled to soon be released by the New York-based emergency technology company RapidSOS, the Emergency Data Exchange, will enable real-time interoperability (the ability of computer or software systems to exchange information) through digital automation—even if different centers aren’t using the same programs or devices.

Built on Amazon Web Services’ GovCloud, the platform enables cross-jurisdictional incident information to be accessed via a digital interface that leverages the National Emergency Number Association’s Emergency Incident Data Object—a type of computer coding that’s designed for the exchange of emergency incident information and data. Amazon Web Services’ GovCloud is a cloud-based infrastructure platform that meets specific government regulatory and compliance requirements. 

Within that framework, the “Emergency Data Exchange is meant to improve collaboration and response times using systems already available to emergency communication centers,” said Ryan Reynolds, justice and public safety lead at Amazon. “We believe that this innovation will help solve the challenges with multi-jurisdictional dispatching, emergency response and disasters.” 

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