In a report published on Wednesday, first responders in Los Angeles County praised Apple Inc. AAPL smartphone’s Emergency SOS via satellite feature as a crucial tool, crediting it with helping “over a dozen” rescues drastically improving emergency response time.
What Happened: Officials from the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department hailed the iPhone’s Emergency SOS via satellite feature as a pivotal game-changer in emergencies, as per the report from Backpacker.
Assistant director Mike Leum spoke about the feature’s immediate impact, saying, “We’ve experienced multiple benefits. Number one is the immediate notification that we get. People have an hour to get advanced life support to increase their survivability. In a couple of these incidents, people’s lives were one hundred percent saved because of this feature.”
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Leum also underscored the value of the two-way communication aspect. “So when they send the 911 text message, the station can reply and find out very important information like: Is anybody hurt? How many people are with you? Does anyone have any medical conditions?”
Steve Goldsworthy, the SAR Technology Director for the LASD, called the feature “a complete game changer” and highlighted the fact that the feature comes with precise location data during emergencies, expediting rescue operations.
“The GPS position is coming right off of the phone, so it’s extremely accurate,” he said.
Speaking about concerns related to false activations, Goldsworthy said, “If we were to get an SOS call, we’d treat it very seriously because of the success rate that we’ve had.”
The report was first spotted by 9To5Mac.
Why It’s Important: The Emergency SOS via satellite feature started becoming available in the iPhone 14 lineup. It essentially allows users to send SOS to emergency services without cellular and WiFi coverage.
The feature has helped rescue many people, including a stranded man in remote Alaska, two people stuck in a 300-foot canyon, and many Canadian citizens battling the blazing wildfires earlier this year.
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