In light of the recent state of student shootings at universities, high schools and even grade schools, the general public is understandably shaken and slow to trust that the American education system is doing enough to protect its children and young adults.
Though school districts and institutions of higher learning are racing to increase security measures, it is estimated that 25% to 70% of 911 calls made in a campus environment are actually pranks or accidental calls, leaving school officials unsure of how to quickly analyze and respond to each situation.
At one university in California, official were experiencing just this problem. Typical to any college location, the majority of students live and work on campus. In this type of environment, there is no room for a lack of safety and security systems to ensure students and staff are adequately protected.
However, after implementing tougher security and emergency response methods to better address urgent situations such as medical emergencies, crimes and even school lockdowns, school officials realized that a large percentage of on-campus emergency calls being made over the school’s telephone system were false alarms. The officials and security staff needed to find a way to somehow quickly distinguish the real emergency calls from the false ones.
At the same time, university officials were worried about protecting themselves from potential lawsuits in the event a true emergency was inadvertently dismissed as a false one. Without a telemanagement system in place, the university had no way of quickly learning the originating location or phone number that was dialing 911. In a period of only one week, emergency services had been summoned to the campus five times, all due to false alarms causing campus security and emergency personnel valuable time and energy, as well as upsetting students and their parents.
After looking into various options, the university opted to implement OfficeWatch, a call reporting and telemanagement system that includes sophisticated 911 real-time alerting features. While considering the right type of system to employ, officials found through their research that the majority of accidental or prank 911 calls are actually hung up before being dispatched to a 911 operator. Because 911 operators are trained to keep callers on the line until emergency personnel have been dispatched, school officials realized that a system such as OfficeWatch would be the perfect solution, as PBXs only send call data to a call accounting system after a call has been disconnected. Therefore, if OfficeWatch alerts security and school personnel of a 911 call, it means the call had been completed and the staff could take immediate steps to verify the validity of the emergency.
OfficeWatch is unique in that its alerts can be sent across an unlimited number of authorized network PCs, via text message, and/or email, ensuring the correct staff members are notified. Additionally, OfficeWatch can identify not only the extension that dialed the emergency call, but also pinpoint the location of that extension on campus. This enables security personnel to quickly respond by first calling the identified location to verify whether or not the call was in error, as so often is the case.
By implementing OfficeWatch, university officials can now better utilize their security and emergency personnel, ensuring that when a true emergency occurs, the proper resources can be dispatched.
Learn more about the importance of instant 911 alerts and compliance with Kari's Law
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