Product Applications: Saving Lives Through Technology

You never know when you might be needed to save a life.

Bill Eck, Zoning/Code Officer with Kingstown Township and nearly 40-year fire service veteran, learned that lesson a short time after installing Active911.

Eck says he installed the software in September of 2013 at around 2 in the afternoon. Around 8 o’clock that night, Eck was alerted by the software that his neighbor’s three-year-old child was in danger, and ended up saving his life.

“As far as I’m concerned, it’s paid for itself a thousand times over,” Eck says.

Active911 is a digital messaging system that alerts users to emergencies in their area. During an emergency, alarms, maps and other critical information are sent to user’s phones.

Eck says the product is convenient because it allows him to be alerted to emergencies in the area without the use of a scanner or similar product.

Eck says he likes that he can get silent alerts with Active911, so during meetings he can still be alerted to emergencies without the noisiness that usually comes with a scanner. Being able to change tones for different alerts is a valuable feature as well, he says.

Old scanners and pagers that are worn on belts are the closest thing he has used to Active911, but they don’t necessarily compare, Eck says.

“There’s really nothing out there like this that I can remember,” Eck says.

One of Eck’s favorite features is the display. Having the information about the location of the emergency sent directly to your device makes for easy use, he says.

“Unlike a scanner, if you a miss a house number or something, you can see it again,” Eck says.

Eck says Active911 is great, and he would absolutely recommend it to anyone thinking about trying it.

For more information on Active911 or to set up an account, visit Active911.com.