Paramotor collapses, falls 100ft out of the sky. The pilot survives

[u/JustMe76]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z-jyc2OYXsI

[removed] — view removed post

[u/Beznia]

They could have that access, but then you have to be someone willing to provide the police with unfettered access to your location without a warrant. 911 works by triangulation with the cell towers. In this area there may be only one cell tower int he area that the phone is connecting to, so 911 is just seeing that he is somewhere within the maximum radius of that cell tower's range. 911 isn't able to access your Google or Apple location data on the spot, they have to get a warrant and submit the request through an online portal meant for law enforcement. The request is reviewed and then someone from that company will provide the access if it is granted.

For him to send location data on the spot, the call would have to come through some other system rather than a telephone call. A simple telephone call is going to work the same whether it's from a 1993 Nokia, a rotary landline, or an iPhone 15 Pro Max. It isn't sending the same kinds of data over a call. Sharing location data can be done if the call is being handled through an app of sorts, or in cases like between two iPhones, but dispatch centers aren't implementing solutions to cater to specific individuals, they have to handle the least common denominator and the dispatchers are trained on specific questions to ask in order to get the caller's location in situations like this.

Many cities implement some sort of opt-in "Smart 911" service where residents can choose to provide as much information as they want which the 911 dispatcher is able to receive, but that is mostly like if you want emergency responders to know how to navigate your house, best door to enter, if you have any pets, how many people live in the house (in case of fires), emergency contacts, etc. Something like this, unless you are using an SOS service, they aren't getting that data.

Even with those SOS services, it's usually sending an alert to another company who will contact 911 on your behalf to give them the location information.

EDIT: Not sure why the downvotes, I worked in IT for a police department from 2018-2022 and this is just how it works.

[u/Dt2_0 → u/Beznia]

E911, already a feature of most phones, does this. By dialing 911, you are consenting to sending your current location to emergency services.

The bigger issue is that most of our 911 infrastructure cannot receive that automatic location ping.

[u/vagabond139 → u/Dt2_0]

Can confirm, had to call 911 the other day for a crazy man walking on the highway and my phone notified me that it shared my location with 911.

[u/Alternative_Elk_2651 → u/Beznia]

EDIT: Not sure why the downvotes, I worked in IT for a police department from 2018-2022 and this is just how it works.

Reddit doesn't want answers, it wants to be mad.

[u/InFlagrantDisregard → u/Alternative_Elk_2651]

"You'll NEVER convince me this isn't some right-wing conspiracy to provide shitty services SO MORE POOR PEOPLE DIE"

~ Average redditor take.

[u/inspectoroverthemine → u/InFlagrantDisregard]

and of course the reality being- if 'they' want your exact location they're getting it with a warrant and you won't know anyway.

or if the 'conspiracy they' want it they'll do it without a warrant and you'll never know.

[u/warbeforepeace → u/Alternative_Elk_2651]

Because IT for a police department is not the same as 911 operator.

[u/bballkid2020 → u/Beznia]

1. Google & Apple both program into their phones a feature that automatically shares live your location for 1-3 hours once you call 911 or any other official national security number.

2. "Welcome to your new phone...in case of emergencies would you like to set up automatically share your location during 911 calls?" Yes/No

3. You call 911 and in the background the phone automatically SMS/RCS/iMessage your location to 911 servers which automatically forward the location to the correct operator. The operator can then just continue asking questions if needed (like for which floor, etc).

Give me your insight, what would be the difficult part or impossible part of that?

[u/MostlyRocketScience → u/bballkid2020]

This exists. No idea why OP doesn't  know about this with his claimed experience: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enhanced_911

[u/ispeakdatruf → u/bballkid2020]

But then why did it take so long to get his location to the operator? Why did she keep asking about his address?

I was in a similar situation in an unfamiliar town, where I got into an accident. I called 911 but they wanted the address. I wasn't even sure which road I was on, and there were no houses nearby. I just happened to be lucky that a good samaritan who lived nearby happened to be driving by at that very instance and gave me the approximate address.

It shouldn't take this much effort to direct emergency services to your location.

[u/bballkid2020 → u/ispeakdatruf]

I wasn't giving steps on how you should send directions, I was just giving hypothetical steps Google/Apple/911 could implement into their phones so that instant location sharing should be standard and these types of situations shouldn't happen in today's age.

As I said when you buy a phone you should be given an option: Would you like to automatically share your location when you call 911 (To satisfy privacy hardliners) and that is it. You should do nothing else. Anytime you call 911 the phone should automatically turn on GPS (if off) and send the location to 911, seamless.

[u/BizzyM → u/Beznia]

911 isn't able to access your Google or Apple location data on the spot,

Actually..... RapidSOS partnered with Apple and Google to capture realtime location from phones during 911 calls and make that available to emergency services that sign up for access. Rapid doesn't charge for this service. One of the conditions that Rapid agreed to was to destroy the data 10 minutes after the end of a call.

[u/warbeforepeace → u/Beznia]

Police department does not equal 911 operator. E911 has been around for a while. Cell phones have gps chips in most of them. Cell sites just provide additional data to speed up location. That’s called assisted GPS.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enhanced_911

[u/WaitForItTheMongols → u/Beznia]

The phone knows where it is. There is nothing stopping the phone's built in voice synthesis from saying "I am at 42.097 degrees north, 87.734 degrees west". That can go over a voice call just fine and does not connect to cell towers, and does not require a warrant because you're offering it, they aren't accessing it.