Brookhaven PD becomes first Georgia public safety agency to livestream 9-1-1 calls

BROOKHAVEN, Ga. (Atlanta News First) - The Brookhaven Police Department has begun to livestream 9-1-1 calls directly to officers in the field.

The new application called Live911 allows officers to hear the details of incoming emergencies and track the 9-1-1 caller’s location on a map. Officers can monitor the calls from their patrol cars and go right to the scene of an emergency without waiting to get information from dispatchers. It can save a couple of critical minutes. Brookhaven is the first department in the state to use it and one of only 78 departments in the country currently using the program.

“We are always looking for new ways to fulfill our mission of providing professional, high quality, and effective police services to the citizens of Brookhaven,” said Brookhaven Police Chief Brandon Gurley. “The addition of groundbreaking technology like Live911 has already saved lives and given our officers a head start to an emergency when seconds count.”

Officials say that the app Live911 closes the 9-1-1 time gap between police call takers to first responders by allowing officers to immediately hear incoming 9-1-1 emergency calls in their area.

“We are very excited with the early results we are seeing from our integration of Live911. Our officers are getting a level of detail from the 911 callers firsthand. This has been game-changing for our officers,” said Brookhaven Police Lt. Abrem Ayana.

Lt. Ayana said they believe the program has already helped them save lives in the few months they’ve been using it. He said sometimes information can get lost in translation when it’s getting relayed from dispatchers to officers, so this allows officers to get a better picture of what’s happening.

He said, “They can hear the urgency in the caller’s voice, they may hear other things in the background such as yelling or some other conflict.”

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