Yahoo Finance The app police claim can save your life
UK police have urged people to download location app, What3Words, claiming the app could mean the difference between living and dying in emergency situations.
The app divides the world into 57 trillion 3 meter squares and gives each square a unique three-word address that never changes.
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For example, this office has the three word code of “sheets.successes.rare”.
The popularity of the app is due to the precision of the addresses, with Lonely Planet now using it to provide three word addresses for points of interest, and Mongolia uses it for its postal service.
And, it’s been used by UK police and rescue services to rescue several people now.
According to What3Words, several police stations including Humerside, Bedfordshire and West Yorkshire Police now work with What3Words to speed up operations.
“Having this type of technology integrated within our Command and Control system has changed the way we are able to deal with incidents where the location isn’t known,” Sam Sheppard, from Avon and Somerset Police said.
“We are moving away from the old style of questioning: ‘where have you come from?’, ‘where are you going?’, ‘what can you see?’ etc. These questions take time and aren’t always that accurate.
“Asking for a three word address or sending an SMS so they can easily provide their three word address, has meant we have saved valuable time locating incidents. The Control Room staff that have used what3words for an emergency call, have said how easy it is, and they were able to find the location a lot quicker than they previously would have.”
For UK woman, Jess Tinsley, the app was a life saver after she and her friends became lost in a forest during a rainy night.
"We were in a field and had no idea where we were," the 24-year-old told the BBC.
When they found a phone signal, they dialled emergency services who told her to download the app.
"I had never heard of it,” Tinsley said.
However, once the group had downloaded the app, the police said they knew exactly where the drenched group was and found them within 90 minutes.
"I have told everyone I know to download this app," Tinsley said.
"You never know when you are going to get lost and need it."
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