Inside Howard County?s bustling 911 call center, master dispatcher Erin Wurzburger is surrounded by information screens, letting her and other emergency workers know the details of incoming calls of distress.
But recently, a new kind of technology has enabled Wurzburger to find citizens she couldn?t before.
Last month, Howard County began using Pictometry International Corp.?s software and aerial images of the county in its 911 center to help police officers and firefighters in the field locate people and items when no road signs are available.
“We can find anything in the county from the aerial images,” Wurzberger said.
Scott Sherwood, the vice president for corporate marketing initiatives of the Rochester N.Y.-based Pictometry, said law enforcement agencies “represent a large portion of our business.”
“It?s very popular because it has the ability to help officers do their jobs better,” he added.
By using 3-D photographs of the entire county, technicians in the county?s 911 center can use landmarks to better find a lost child, a nearby water supply for firefighters, or an escaped convict?s whereabouts, said Sgt. Dave Trapani of Howard County police.
A call dispatcher can ask callers, police officers or firefighters to describe their surroundings, allowing the dispatcher to pinpoint their location.
Many parts of rural western Howard County still do not have clear road signs and a firefighter could drive for miles on back roads before finding one, Trapani said.
“It?s already been a help to us,” he said of the Pictometry system.
The state supplied Howard County with the $170,000 needed for a two-year lease of the system and photos, said Virginia Peterman, Howard County?s Geographic Information Systems Coordinator.
Pictometry will use a Cesna plane to take aerial photographs of the county every two years during the spring, Peterman said.
Baltimore, Montgomery and Prince George?s already are using the technology, according to Pictometry.
“People have been shooting oblique imagery since Word War I,” Sherwood said. “What we?ve done is we?ve streamlined and modernized it. We?ve made it very easy to use.”
