SafeKidZone's Blog

It’s time for America to wake up and realize that we’re not without a way to help our 911 heroes get there faster. Last Friday (Aug 6th) the Martins of Sutter County, California were murdered in their home despite managing to make a 911 call before the crime could be carried out. Read the Appeal-Democrat article HERE.

According to the article:

“A deputy was dispatched at 10:15 p.m., two minutes after the cell phone call to the CHP. But the CHP was unable to pinpoint the origin of the call…”

You will have probably noticed by this point that a good number of our posts tend to address situations where SafeKidZone could have helped. We’re just trying to get the message across that it’s time for people to become more active in making the world a safer place. Our hope is that you read this blog or go to our website and begin to realize the possibilities that the existence of a service as robust as ours presents.

It is definitely true that most 911 dispatches do not have a way to effectively pinpoint 911 calls that come from cell phones. This is an issue because, as we all know, most 911 calls – in fact most phone calls in general – come from cell phones. Currently the method of locating a cell-based 911 call is cell phone tower triangulation (Click here to read our previous post explaining it in more detail) but as the article states, it’s less than dependable:

“There is no official system for us to retrieve the address and subscriber immediately,”

Depending on which phone company is involved and the type of phone, the CHP [California Highway Patrol] can triangulate the call and get an approximate location “but many factors have to align to make this happen,” McElfresh said

That’s why SafeKidZone uses real satellite GPS so we can help friends and 911 accurately locate a person in trouble, no matter where they are on the globe. It’s time to get the word out to your community and we are more than ready to help where we can.

Cell phones are replacing home phones with cheap rate plans. This picture was taken Aug. 11 2010

The prevalentfactor here seems to be that more and more people are completely ditching their home phones and replacing them with cell phones. It’s not neccesarily a bad thing as crime can happen anywhere and it’s better to be connected than not. In the Martins’ case it happened in their home but it’s far easier and safer to conceal a cell phone from an intruder and remain mobile than it is to run to a land line outlet and be pinned to that spot. Even cell phone service carriers are stepping up aggressively to encourage people to go 100% mobile with low-cost plans packed with minutes. Just today I snapped a shot of this billboard at a cell phone store, illustrating that very phenomenon.

Rather than resist this change I think it’s better to embrace it and help 911 do the same. Everyone knows that the major bottleneck that slows the process of upgrading 911 systems is budget concerns. SafeKidZone knows this too so we are more than happy to help with our service which requires no special equipment other than a computer and a cell phone. We need to start the conversation and roll with the change to make our environment safer for us and our children.

So download SafeKidZone and join the conversation on Twitter, FaceBook and right here on our blog.

Today’s article entitled “No 911 location from cell phone calls” comes to us via The Democrat.  It frames calling 911 from one’s cell phone as a problem because of a common problem of accurately locating where the call is originating since a cell phone is not tethered to any landlines. That is, back in the days before cell phones, 911 could find you easily because they knew where your land line was and what home address it was registered to.

Those were the days of the legacy systems but the alarming thing is that many 911 dispatch centers still use the very same systems to handle 911 calls today! The problem they face is that well over 90% of 911 cell calls come from cell phones nowadays. What’s more is that people are replacing their land lines altogether in favor of using their cell phones as their only phone line.

Most 911 calls come from Cell phones now.

And why not? Cell phones are packed with features and now we have smart phones (i.e. Blackberry and Android phones) which are essentially hand held computers that allow you to do just about anything. The iPad is nothing more than a giant iPhone, if you think about it, and it’s being marketed as a tablet computer.

The Democrat article drives home the fact that 911 operators have issues locating cell-based 911 calls which makes it harder for them to find you if you’re in an emergency, which means it takes longer to find you and that can be dangerous considering every second counts.

So what’s stopping them from upgrading their equipment to handle cell calls? Money. Here’s a quote right from the article:

Copeland says an equipment upgrade would help the problem, but it would cost the county several hundred thousand dollars to implement.

If you to tell us at SafeKidZone that this problem is a fact that you can’t change, our position would be this: we respectfully disagree.  Although it is true that the problem described by the Democrat article is very real, we and our users all know that we have the solution and it doesn’t cost the city, the county or the state one red cent.

SafeKidZone sends your GPS location to 911 dispatchers. Period. That one simple fact about our service solves the problem completely, but that’s not enough for us. We’re serious about keeping you and your family safe so we’ve even included vital information and a photo that can be sent to 911 so they can not only locate you in an emergency, but also identify you quickly. We save time and have the potential to significantly cut down the time it takes for 911 to arrive with help simply because they know where you are and know what you look like.

That’s power.

Sign up and start making your streets safer from your cell phone.
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Photo: LA Times

It is with great sadness that I write today about the abduction and slaying of Norma Lopez in Moreno Valley. The LA Times article is located HERE and you should give it a read and comment. Our hearts go out to Norma’s family and loved ones.

There is a killer among the residents of Moreno Valley, CA and those who knew Norma Lopez are living in fear. We’re tired of hearing about things like this and we’re tired of living in fear.

How long will we gamble with the balance between fear of change and our children’s safety? How long will we resist change?

We at SafeKidZone know that although we are stalwart allies in the fight against sex offenders, murderers and kidnappers, we are also fighting our own small battle against the winds of change. People sometimes fear change, for example change in the way that SafeKidZone is changing how people use their cell phones. No longer is a cell phone just a toy to text your friends with, but with our service we turn it into a vital safety device that can actually prevent danger or stop a crime in progress if used correctly. A crime no different than the one that claimed the life of Norma Lopez.

The LA Times article raises chilling questions and issues. Here are some quotes from the piece:

“With word that a killer was among them, fear spread quickly among Moreno Valley’s parents and teenagers Wednesday after authorities confirmed that a body found near a patch of farmland was that of a missing 17-year-old high school student.”

“Sonia DeLeon, a prenatal health counselor, wasn’t taking any chances. She’s sending her 17-year-old daughter to live with relatives in San Diego County for a few weeks.”

“It’s scary. The person is still out there,” DeLeon said. “I work, my husband works, we can’t keep an eye on her every minute.”
“News of Lopez’s death, mostly through text messages and cellphones, traveled quickly through her school long before the Sheriff’s Department made the official announcement, Principal Kristen Hunter said.”

SafeKidZone could have helped. Here’s how:

1. Killer among them: SafeKidZone has access to the National Sex Offender Registry and Crime Data. That means that parents in the area could know about what’s happening in their neighborhood and whether a sex offender lives near and set proximity alerts when a kid gets near a sex offender or crime zone.
2. Sending her 17-year-old daughter to San Diego: There is no need to do this in a general sense when your kid has SafeKidZone running on their cellphone.  San Diego, while a beautiful city, is not inherently more safe than the place where Norma Lopez was abducted. Lest we forget that Chelsea King and Amber Dubois were both abducted in San Diego. SafeKidZone is a community application meaning that out goal is to help build safer communities through vigilance and information sharing between neighbours. Moreno Valley could be made much safer if residents there adopted SKZ as a safety solution.
3. I work, my husband works, we can’t keep an eye on her every minute: Yes you can with SafeKidZone’s real time GPS tracking. We don’t expect parents to watch every movement of their child, but in an emergency a child in trouble can hit the Panic Button, which will send an email and text alert to the parent with GPS coordinates on a map and situational information, while also opening a conference call with our Call Center and others in your personal safety network. If it turns out that it’s a real emergency Safety Network Members or our call center will escalate the Panic Button alert and all the information to police.
4. News of death traveled quickly through texts and cellphones: Wouldn’t it be great if instead of news of death being transmitted over cellphone networks, we could have news of life and a chance to stop a kidnapping or murder from happening? Yes! SafeKidZone already does this. The Panic Button sends a text and email AND a phone call from the kid’s cellphone to people who can help.

So what’s the hold up, people? SafeKidZone values your privacy and there there is no privacy issue since personal and location information is only shared between you and people you hand-selected as trustworthy individuals. Our product works on just about every cellphone on the market with an iPhone 4 app forthcoming, so there is no compatibility issue. Our product works – period.

The battle we fight is making sure people spread the word and open their minds to change. So spread the word,with one or all of the links below, for the sake of your children and ours. We can’t afford to wait any longer.

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