(Photo courtesy of Pixabay)
The Halton Regional Police Service has partnered with ‘What3Words’.
The service provides an easy and quick way to communicate a location. It breaks the world down to three-metre squares and assigns three unique words to each square. For example, the what3words address of the HRPS Headquarters’ front entrance is Erupt.Venomous.Linear.
Using the app, people are able to communicate with police about where specifically they are by sending their unique code. The HRPS feel this could help in serious situations.
“This technology could be especially helpful in situations where people have become lost hiking, or have driven off the road and are trapped in a vehicle and don’t know where they are,” says Staff Sergeant Stephanie Jamieson, Communications Bureau. “We think this will also help immensely along the 325 square kilometres of Lake Ontario policed by the HRPS Marine Unit. Boaters can become stranded or lost and struggle to communicate their location to police.”
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The HRPS adds that this service is far more useful than the traditional ‘ping’ technology currently used by emergency services. They will begin using ‘What3Words’ effective immediately.
The app is available for free on iOS and Android or via the online map at what3words.com. It’s also available in more than 40 languages. The app also works offline, making it ideal for use in rural areas of Halton that may have poor or unreliable data signal.
For more information, a video on how the program works can be found here.
