Eagle Eye 911 Camera Sharing: Protecting communities nationwide

Emergencies are rarely clear-cut and neat: It takes time to figure out exactly what’s going on, how many people are at risk, and what hazards may be present for responders.   

Imagine the dilemma for first responders to a fire in a sprawling industrial complex. A 911 caller, working in an adjacent building, reported seeing smoke and the flicker of fire, and hearing both loud bangs and shouts from inside. Without knowing much more, responders on scene don’t know how many people are inside or in which part of the building. They don’t know whether the bangs were gunshots, overheated electrical transformers, or something else. Without better situational awareness, they may be putting themselves at risk or could make the incident worse, no matter how they respond.

Extracting the information that matters, fast

Video captured from surveillance cameras on site often contains just that kind of information, but in conventional systems it’s too complicated and slow to access to be of use to first responders. Or it’s just not accessible at all.    

With Eagle Eye 911 Camera Sharing, emergency personnel can benefit from real-time video when an emergency happens, without relying on witnesses to stay nearby with a phone pointed at the scene. 

All it takes to implement this powerful capability is an industry-standard ONVIF camera, the Eagle Eye Cloud VMS, and a software connection that links your on-premise cameras with local authorities. And because privacy is paramount during normal situations, the actual camera sharing is limited to the duration of an actual emergency. 

Now, rapidly rising integrations with emergency communications centers (ECCs) around the U.S. means that more people are covered by these instantly, securely shareable video connections. The vast majority of ECCs are already ready for 911 Camera Sharing; In fact, it’s available to local ECCs in every U.S. state, Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico. That means that emergency operators can be alerted to shared cameras near the scene from which a 911 call is made for instant situational awareness. 

More connections = more information

A broad range of customers have elected to add 911 Camera Sharing to their security suite, whether as an affordable standalone system, or as a selectable feature of an existing Eagle Eye Cloud VMS system. The kind of businesses and institutions that have adopted camera sharing shows how widely useful it can be: 

• Schools, both public and private
• Municipalities
• Retail stores
• Private businesses
• Community centers
• Law firms

A great advantage of this growth is that when a 911 emergency takes place, emergency operators will have a growing list of cameras to select from, so on-scene responders get ever deeper situational awareness. When a 911 call is detected near any camera configured for 911 Camera Sharing, its output is made available to the ECC, so all nearby cameras can contribute to responders' situational awareness. And all without giving anyone else operational control of your cameras or full-time access to their output.

Ready to give even deeper protection to your premises? 

Rich Pizzo

Rich Pizzo, Customer Success Operations Manager for Eagle Eye Networks. I’ve worked in Implementation, Training, and Customer Success in the technology sector for 15 years, with a recent specialization in surveillance, security, and emergency services.