Eagle Eye Networks has launched Eagle Eye 911 Camera Sharing, a technology that gives Emergency Communication Center telecommunicators (911 professionals) instant access to security cameras during an emergency, empowering them to deliver critical incident information to first responders through a partnership with RapidSOS.

“The job of many first responders is quite dangerous,” says Dean Drako, CEO, Eagle Eye Networks. “Part of that is because they often go into a scene with very little or no information. They may have some information from a person who called 911, but that’s generally limited to what the caller can see.”

Drako continues, “With Eagle Eye 911 Camera Sharing, the telecommunicator can have eyes on the scene and get a better idea of what the first responders are walking into. They can brief them and then they can keep the first responder up to date on what’s changing and what they're seeing. So that’s the vision, and I think this solution actually delivers on it.”

RapidSOS is the intelligent safety platform that directly and securely links life-saving data from more than 540 million connected devices, apps, and sensors to over 16,000 911 and field responder agencies covering 99 percent of the U.S. population.

Today, security cameras are ubiquitous at schools and businesses, but 911 telecommunicators typically cannot access them in an emergency. With the introduction of Eagle Eye 911 Camera Sharing, 911 telecommunicators can now instantly access live video from one or multiple security cameras when a 911-triggered emergency occurs.

“The idea of sharing cameras with someone outside of an organization, even 911 centers raises some questions about privacy — schools are concerned about it, businesses are concerned about it,” says Drako. “We addressed that concern by creating an appropriate window for the Emergency Communication Center to have access to cameras. Organizations are okay with allowing access to security cameras during an emergency. Once the emergency is resolved the ECC can no longer access the cameras.”

Drako continues, “That was a critical decision. We do give the Emergency Communications Center access to the video for an hour to a few hours before the event actually occurs for investigation purposes. There may be important information, for example someone setting something up, what cars we have dropped somebody off or things like that. That may be relevant to them understanding the situation. But after the 911 case is closed by the Emergency Communications Center, all the video access is cut off. At that point, only the owner of the security camera has access to the video.”

School leaders and public safety officials have lauded Eagle Eye 911 Camera Sharing as a groundbreaking technology that can quickly deliver important information when time is of the essence.

Damon Grant, Co-principal of Oakland Unity Middle School, Oakland, Calif., said, “The Eagle Eye Networks 911 Camera Sharing solution we’ve implemented gives first responders critical information in real-time to guide their response to an emergency in our school. The presence of this technology serves as a silent guardian, ready to act if needed, but a resource we hope we will never need.”

Justin Ihne, CEO, Plattsburgh YMCA, Plattsburgh, N.Y., said,  “It was an easy decision for us to add Eagle Eye 911 Camera Sharing as an extra layer of security that could help get services to our members as quickly as possible in the event of a medical or other emergency.”

Chief Don DeLucca, former president of the International Chiefs of Police, said, “Eagle Eye 911 Camera Sharing will be a game changer for active shootings, burglaries, alarms, and even medical and fire emergencies. We ask our field responders to manage millions of incidents a year with only the limited information that a distressed caller might be able to provide. Eagle Eye 911 Camera Sharing gives us a real-time view of exactly what is occurring at the scene of an emergency.”

This is how Eagle Eye 911 Camera Sharing works: 

• The school or business predetermines which cameras are shareable via Eagle Eye 911 Camera Sharing.
• A 911 call triggers an alert that enables Emergency Communication Center telecommunicators to instantly view footage from cameras at or near the crime scene. Video may be available from multiple sources, including any businesses in close proximity to the crime scene.
• The 911 telecommunicator can use the security cameras for situational awareness and to inform first responders.

Some of the first organizations to adopt Eagle Eye 911 Camera Sharing include schools and universities, retail outlets, facilities with lone workers, and businesses that may be unstaffed at certain hours of the day such as 24-hour gyms. Eagle Eye 911 Camera Sharing increases the value of any organization's security cameras and greatly enhances emergency preparedness and response capabilities.

“When we started down the path, we thought obviously it would be of interest to schools and for public safety, but we’ve also had a lot of strong interest from corporations,” says Drako. “That has been a pleasant surprise, and it makes sense — Eagle Eye 911 Camera Sharing is inexpensive, easy to implement. If there’s an emergency, they want to have a better first responder response for their employees. People want to do the right thing.”

Purpose-built for cloud and cybersecurity, the benefits of Eagle Eye 911 Camera Sharing include:

• Predetermined camera access: Only the cameras that a business or school predetermines will be shared in an emergency
• Privacy protection: Camera video is only accessible during a 911 emergency. The Emergency Communication Center cannot retrieve, save, or view video after the emergency 
• Password protection: There is no need to share individual IP addresses or NVR/DVR/camera logins with the Emergency Communication Center
• Bank-level cybersecurity: Eagle Eye Networks cloud-based video surveillance platform employs the highest cybersecurity standards to ensure video data is encrypted and securely transmitted  
• Audit Log: Any video accessed by 911 telecommunicators is tracked in the Eagle Eye VMS Audit Log

Schools and businesses do not have to be current customers of Eagle Eye Networks to take advantage of this technology, as this feature is also available to non-Eagle Eye Cloud VMS customers as Eagle Eye 911 Public Safety Camera Sharing Complete. For existing customers, Eagle Eye 911 Camera Sharing is available for a small per-camera fee and/or is included in the Professional and Enterprise Editions of the Eagle Eye Cloud VMS. Initially, the 911 camera sharing products will only be available in the United States.

“Eagle Eye 911 Camera Sharing is an option or a feature that’s available to all of the Eagle Eye Networks existing customers,” says Drako. “They can simply enable this function and share their cameras. But we are also offering 911 Camera Sharing to non-Eagle Eye customers. They can add Eagle Eye 911 Public Safety Camera Sharing Complete to their existing video management system or DVR and NVR. This will give them the ability to share their cameras via the Eagle Eye Cloud VMS platform. These very low-cost packages (Eagle Eye 911 Public Safety Camera Sharing Complete) are designed to be an add-on to the customers’ existing VMS, DVR, NVR.”

For more information, visit: een.com.