31 Oct London Fire Brigade can now live stream incident footage
London Fire Brigade has made a raft of changes following the Grenfell Tower Inquiry’s Phase 1 report and the HMICFRS 2019 inspection report. One such change is the introduction of new technology that will allow control officers to live stream vital incident footage from the smart phone cameras of local residents.
The technology, named 999Eye, allows callers to send live stream videos on unfolding incidents straight into the London Fire Brigade’s control centre with no need for an App. Delivered by Capita plc, it will deliver greater situational awareness in the early stages of a reported incident which will support the decision making process.
Assistant Commissioner for Operational Resilience and Control Jonathan Smith said: “We accepted all of the recommendations from the Grenfell Tower Inquiry’s Phase 1 report and are committed to making improvements in our ability to capture 999 and fire survival guidance calls.
“Control Officers work tirelessly under extreme pressure and we want them to have access to state-of-the-art technologies, procedures and training to do the best possible job. 999Eye provides better situational awareness and allows us to offer the best advice based on live footage, that could make a difference. It is one of many wider improvements we are implementing to improve safety in London.”
The new software is easy for callers to operate. When connected to the control centre they will be asked if they’d like to provide a live video screen. If they do, they’ll be sent a text message containing a secure, one-time-use link that will open a live stream direct from the phone. It doesn’t incur any additional costs, and no other data is accessed or stored on the caller’s phone.