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HB NEWS NEW MOBILE APP HELPING POLICE FIND MISSING PEOPLE Halton police are now making use of a special mobile ap y which are in. Since Halton police are now they sa comes Yo finding lost people ‘and resolving other types of emergen- cles. DON'T KEEP ME IN SUSPENSE. WHAT IS IT? The company that offers the app is called What3words. It is a geocode system that has divided the surface of the Earth in- to 57 trillion squares, that are three metres by three metres, and assigned a unique three-word la- bel to each. YOU'VE LOST ME. HOW IS THAT GOING TO HELP HALTON POLICE OR ANYONE ELSE? Halton police and other local emergency services regularly get calls fi utilizing use that three-word designation to im- mediately determine the person's exact location. Halton police Staff Sgt. Stepha- nie Jamieson said emergency ser- vices in the UK and Australia have been using this app since 2019. Halton police had their first success with it in the fall of 2020. FIRST SUCCESS? WHAT ED? Police said a woman was hiki area and found a fire- arm on the bank ofa creek. She called police, but was un- able to provide them a location be- cause she didn't know where she was. The woman had __ the app on her phone know exactly where they are. Peopl have Whatswords ye on their mobile fevice can access ate and provide the ith the three- hod degonation for the area they and was able to give the three- word code to police. Officers identified the location, found the gun and seized it. | FEEL LIKE POLICE ALREADY HAVE FALL 2021 = FROM = THE ROSE RETURN TO THE ROSE Welcome back to The Rose! Weare thrilled to open our doors to audiences again for in-person performances this fall. Visit our website to SOMETHING LIKE THIS. CAN'T THEY ALREADY TRACK YOUR CELLPHONE OR SOMETHING? Jamieson said police can 'ping' a cellphone, but that doesn't give them an exact location, just agen- eral area that might have a radius of hundreds of metres. The What3words app can give police a three metre by three me- tre location. This proved important in Feb- ruary 2021 when a couple: from To- ronto and {heir six six-year-old son got lost wl at Rattle- snake Point Conservation Area in Milto1 The mother called 911 at 6:15 p.m., at which point it had already gotten dark. She also said the battery of her Phone y was about to di could hear her son crying in ihe packground. It was some- thing that we wanted to respond to very quickly,” said Jamieson. "We were able to talk the wom- an through downloading the app and we were able to have officers Halton police photo Members of the Halton Police Board discuss the What3words app, which has helped police in a number of emergency situations. at their location in under 25 min- s." Given the size of the conserva- tion area, Jamieson noted, fhe family een si the cold om howe wea the ‘app sat been utilized. OK. DOES IT HAVE ANY LIMITATIONS? Halton Police Comm tions Supervisor Brian Dodd ss said the effectiveness of the app de- creases somewhat when the per- son using it is indoors, but even here it proved superior to pinging the cellphone. Dodd provided an example from D December 2020 in which a ° 3 3 é Hi against her will by two men. The victim didn't know where 2 e eas os. a8 ES vee i=J £8 g s B6 a out to her sister by texting. She was afraid her captors § would hear her speaking if she ac- tually called anyone, Dodd said. z ‘0g sequierdag ‘Keps: g 8 ok Ae 2 s. HE 2 g Hi Ie cellphone, but this resulted in a > search area with a radius of 850 & 8 metres within an urban setting featuring apartment buildings and condos. Police then sent the victim a text containing the What3words The victim used this app and police were able to narrow the search area to a 32-metre radius. Officers ultimately zeroed in on an apartment withi in a condo, made two arrests and rescued a victim of human traffic] HOW DO I GET MORE INFORMATION ABOUT THIS? You can visit https:// what3words.com. explore the Fall 2021 season, featuring a stellar line-up of homegrown talent and Canad tists. THANK YOU FOR SUPPORTING THE ARTS! LEARN MORE THEROSEBRAMPTON.CA Oveaus Meridian FIELDGATE DEVELOPMENTS TICKETS AVAILABLE NOW PHOTO: STEVEN PAGE; ATTHEROSE NOVEMBER 12, 2021 NORTHWEST LEXUS