Dispatcher Honored with SmartSave Award by Smart911 in Recognition of His Efforts to Effectively Locate and Dispatch Police to a Woman in Distress

A dispatcher with Eaton County Central Dispatch was honored for his outstanding efforts to aid a citizen in need, using Smart911, the County’s 9-1-1 service aimed at improving emergency response. Dispatch Director April Heinze presented Dispatcher Francis D’Huyvetter with a SmartSave Award from Smart911, which recognizes and rewards call takers, dispatchers and emergency responders who are able to effectively use information in a Smart911 Safety Profile to positively affect the outcome of an emergency.

On June 18, Dispatcher D’Huyvetter received a call from a woman stating that her daughter was in a dangerous situation in an apartment with a male subject and was not able to call 9-1-1, only send texts to her mother. Without the ability to speak to the woman directly, Dispatcher D’Huyvetter utilized an alternate form of communication, the ability to text the woman’s mobile phone from the 9-1-1 console through the Smart911 service. The woman was able to provide information on her location and the male subject within the apartment as well as descriptions of his weapons. Police officers were dispatched to her location where she was instructed to open the door via text message. Officers arrested the male subject and the woman was removed from the scene safely.

“This is a great example of a situation in which we really need specific details to send help, but it is unsafe for the victim to communicate by voice,” stated D’Huyvetter, a dispatcher of 9 years. “Because we utilize the Smart911 service, I was able to initiate a text session directly through my dispatch console and obtain the information needed to send help. Without Smart911, we would have spent several more minutes working to obtain her location, and each minute potentially put her in further danger.”

“We implemented Smart911 in Eaton County in 2013 because we knew that the citizen created Safety Profiles would provide great value in our response efforts,” said Heinze, director of Eaton County Central Dispatch. “Even without having a personal profile, Francis was able to utilize one of the additional benefits of the service by communicating in an entirely new way, getting the information he needed to send help fast, and ensuring the safety of both the citizen and our officers.”

Smart911 allows citizens to create a Safety Profile for their household that includes any information they want 9-1-1 and response teams to have in the event of an emergency. When a citizen makes an emergency call, their Safety Profile is automatically displayed to the 9-1-1 call taker, allowing them to send the right response teams to the right location with the right information. Responders can be aware of many details they would not have known previously with Smart911. For instance, fire crews can arrive at a house fire knowing how many people live in the home and the location of bedrooms, EMS can be advised of allergies or specific medical conditions, and police can have the photo of a missing child in seconds rather than hours.