SafeTREC – Advanced Mobile Safety

SafeKidZone Solutions To Schoolyard Bullying

August 22, 2011

A recent study found nearly 80 per cent of students reported being the victims of bullying.

The same survey of children, commissioned by Bullying Statistics, claimed children felt school was becoming more violent.

Every month 280,000 children are reportedly the victims of physical violence at school.

The question many parents face in the wake of such widespread bullying is how can they protect their children while they’re at school?

Not surprisingly the same survey found 32 per cent of adults feared for their child’s safety while their children were at school.

One of the biggest problem with bullying is that it goes unreported, thus giving the bully license to continue their torment.

However, imagine for a second that your child had the SafeKidZone application on their phone. When a bully approaches them either at school or walking home. They have been targeted because they are alone or with only one friend and seen as an easy target.

Now imagine if you kid has a Panic Button (pictured) and can explain to the bully, “Everyone in my Safety Network has been notified, including the police, friends,mom, dad, and every neighbor within one mile of my location.”

There is no way the bully would go near them! The SafeKidZone application is as much about danger prevention as it has to do with emergency situations.

There would also be peace of mind as a parent because you would know your child had the protection of their entire Safety Network at the touch of a button.

If you would like to know more about the SafeKidZone application please visit our Youtube. site where we have numerous instructional videos.

You can also contact us via email or phone and we will get back to you as soon as possible.

In the meantime, stay safe.

The SafeKidZone team.

Filed Under: Safekidzone

911 Services Lag Behind Cell Phone Technology

May 2, 2011

IT’S A MISTAKE TO ASSUME that because you call 911 from your cell phone, the dispatcher at the other end will know where you are – a dangerous mistake as one Army wife discovered.

“The phone rang at 4:43 am on March 27, 2007. Patty Michaels, a dispatcher at a 911 call center in Belleville, IL picked up. On the other end of the call, a woman screamed for help. She said her husband had attacked her. Michaels heard a baby crying in the background. The caller’s address appeared on Michaels’ screen: it was in O’Fallon, IL less than 10 miles away. Michaels asked the woman to confirm the location. “That’s when it got really tricky,” she says. The caller wasn’t in Illinois. She was in South Korea.

Two days earlier, the woman and her baby had left town to join her husband, an Army serviceman posted in Seoul, Korea. She was locked in her bedroom, afraid for her life. But because she had dialed 911 from a VOIP – voice over Internet protocol – service, Michaels had absolutely no way of finding her with the system. The 911 system doesn’t locate computers; it only shows the address that the phone service is registered to, and when Michaels’ caller left the country, she didn’t update her address.”

You can read the full story about the resourcefulness of this amazing dispatcher in the TIMES feature article at http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,2062452,00.html

We have come to assume that because our GPS-enabled phones may know exactly where we are, and because we see it every night on our favorite cop shows, that 911 will know where to send help when we call from our cell phone – or even just have it turned on. Unfortunately, television is not reality. Traditional emergency services don’t take texts, photos, Skype calls or videos either.

You see, 911 was designed for landlines and was not a very sophisticated technology. Beginning in 1968, it took 20 years for 911 to reach 50% of the US population and dispatchers couldn’t even tell where the calls were coming from! By the time this got sorted out along came the cell phone with advancements in technology far outstripping 911 technology by light years!

Enter the MobileTREC emergency cell phone application. When the user activates the MobileTREC Panic Button feature on their cell phone, a sequence of events occurs to provide the user with an immediate response. With a paid subscription, the MobileTREC state-of-the-art Call Center can accurately locate the caller even 10,000 miles away

If only that Army wife had the MobileTREC Panic Button installed, help would have arrived within moments. Sign up before you need it by clicking here - SafeKidZone or SafeTREC.com

Filed Under: In the News, Safekidzone, emergency dispatcher Tagged With: emergency, technology

MobileTREC Offers Help to Japan Assistance Organizations

March 25, 2011

LOS ANGELES, CA – March 16, 2011 – Los Angeles-based technology company, MobileTREC, is committed to helping communities in need, and has reached out to leading organizations such as Shelter Box, Interaction, U.S. State Department, World Vision, Save the Children, Doctors Without Borders, Mercy Corps, Convoy of Hope, American Red Cross, and Salvation Army to offer its personal safety technology, SafeKidZone and SafeTREC, which can assist support and rescue efforts for teams deployed on the ground. In recognition of the hardships currently faced by the citizens of Japan, MobileTREC is offering their services free of charge.

By using the MobileTREC applications on a mobile phone, the user can trigger a sequence of coordinated events that enhance personal and public safety. Through the use of a single Panic Button feature, MobileTREC can notify relief personnel of the location and status of a person via voice, SMS, and email mapping technologies anywhere in the world.

Simultaneously, MobileTREC’s 24/7 Emergency Response Center can open an immediate conference bridge with a personalized Safety Network of emergency contacts that includes friends, family, and co-workers. The company will automatically issue an emergency alert notification to team members who are within close proximity of an emergency incident. Most importantly, should an emergency arise during rescue efforts, the MobileTREC platform enables a coordinated response, delivering comprehensive incident information thereby offering the best chance for a coordinated, immediate, and effective response.

Using the MobileTREC services, relief teams will be able to geo-define and geo-locate both safe zones and danger zones so relief personnel will have a real-time, accurate, and clear picture of the environment in which they are operating.

“We are fortunate to be living at a time of advanced technologies, when forces can be mobilized and deployed for the health and well being of people where they need it and when they need it most. It is with great pride that we offer our platform and services to relief organization’s humanitarian efforts to help save and restore lives.” said Don Ferguson, CEO MobileTREC.

Filed Under: In the News, Japan disaster, Safekidzone Tagged With: emergency, gps tracking, technology

911: “Why are you asking so many questions?”

November 30, 2010

“Why are you asking so many questions? When are you going to send help? Can’t you tell where I’m calling from?”

Tampa Bay’s 911 managers hear those questions all the time. Their advice: stay as calm and patient as possible, listen carefully and keep answering all those questions.

This is from a recent news article in the St. Petersburg Times, an area just south of Tampa Bay, Florida.

This is exactly what often happens when a person experiencing an emergency decides to call 911 for help.

911 operators must determine several things. Paramedics, for example, can’t treat a victim of an attack until police secure the scene. And police need to know where the suspects are and if they’re armed.

With SafeKidZone, a real-time log is kept of what is going on in the emergency situation. This effectively enhances emergency management.

The St. Pete Times article also states that 911 systems can determine cell phone coordinates. This is not accurate. If you look at our earlier blog – accurately locating 911 calls, a person called 911 and a location was determined. However, it was actually the location of the cell phone tower 1.3 miles away! With SafeKidZone, our Global Positioning Satellite system can be as accurate as finding a 2 yard radius around the phone.

An emergency safety profile is also delivered by SafeKidZone to the 911 operators so that you can be identified quickly. The safety profile also contains any medical conditions you may have that could potentially affect your medical administration.

SafeKidZone provides the answers that 911 ask to do their job.

SafeKidZone revolutionizes the 911 response.

Filed Under: In the News, Safekidzone Tagged With: 911 cell call, cell coverage, emergency, gps tracking, how to use 911, news, technology

Can You Get an Accurate Location With 911 Cell Calls?

November 5, 2010

911 cell calls, 911 tracking, 911 dispatchers Calgary, Alberta, Canada wants to locate 911 cell phone calls. As it reads in this article, “The city is looking to make it easier to track cell phone calls made to 911.”

The article mentions putting up signs that callers can identify and read off to the emergency dispatcher to help locate the callers. There are quite a few locations in that town that have issues with 911 tracking where callers are located.

Even when 911 Dispatchers are able to locate you, the radius with which your location is determined can be over a mile. This happened in Memphis, Tennessee and can be observed in this short video. A 911 call was made about a crime and the coordinates were determined but the operators found the location to be out of their jurisdiction. When police arrived much later on the scene, the coordinates were a cell phone tower that was 1.3 miles away from where the body was located.

Such an instance is not acceptable to anybody when an emergency is occurring to them. We at SafeKidZone have the solution. Our service uses the accurate GPS in your smart phone to quickly and accurately locate you when an emergency arises.

To sign up for free, click HERE!

Filed Under: In the News, Safekidzone Tagged With: 911 cell call, 911 dispatchers, cell coverage, emergency, GPS, gps tracking, technology

Symbian phones losing support

October 1, 2010

Symbian losing support, Mashable, safekidzone You may be asking yourself, “what’s a Symbian?” Well, if you have a non-smartphone, chances are that Symbian is the software that makes your phone work. So your Motorola Krazr, Nokia phone, Samsung, Sony Ericsson, LG phone etc most likely is a Symbian phone.

Although Symbian does work for smartphones too in pockets the more ubiquitous smartphone operating systems are BlackBerry OS (RIM), Android (Google), and iPhoneOS (Apple).

According to this article from Mashable Samsung will be terminating its support for Symbian devices. That’s a big loss in support for Symbian since Samsung is a major cellphone manufacturer, however the fact remains that abour 41% of the overall population of cell phone users have a Symbian phone.

MobileTREC SafeKidZone took this into account when we created our Mobile Personal Security Solution so we made sure that SafeKidZone supports Symbian. Symbian users are able to enjoy most of the functionality of SafeKidZone already, with the exception of real time GPS tracking. You can still get 24×7 call center help and fill out a profile with a portrait for 911 to get if you’re ever in trouble, so they can still find you faster as our Safety Passport still saves a lot of the time that could be taken up by having to describe how a person looks over the phone.

We think GPS is an important function for all mobile phones to have and it seems Mashable’s prediction is that smartphones with GPS are going to soon have the entire market. Consider investing in a few smartphones for you and your family and then install SafeKidZone. You’ll be glad you did.

Filed Under: In the News, Safekidzone Tagged With: 911 cell call, android, blackberry, family safety, flip phones, GPS, gps tracking, iphone, Mashable, Samsung, smartphone, Symbian

The Age of Smartphone Safety Is Here

September 24, 2010

We’ve stepped into the age of smartphones. I think at this point it’s pretty much official: cell phones, smartphones in particular, are the new wave of safety devices.

SKZ GPS tracking can help 911 find you faster!

ABC news has confirmed it here and has acknowledged a wide range of applications that are meant to provide some kind of safety measure. Most are along the lines of ICE, which many of you may have heard of – it’s a program that paramedics nationwide have been pushing to encourage people to keep a phone number in their phone listed under the name ICE (In Case of Emergency) that an emergency responder can call if they find a victim who is incapacitated.

Originally ICE was meant for regular cellphones but since the advent of smartphones we are now able to do more than just call a close friend alone. We can now prevent crime or danger from striking with a little preparedness, close community, and good technology.

The ABC news article showcases a few apps that work similarly in that they are self contained within a smartphone and meant to notify your friends much in the same way ICE was originally intended – some are meant to notify you of a natural disaster and others show you the closest hospitals – assuming you can get yourself to one. However none of the apps mentioned go far enough to offer a complete personal and family safety solution in the way that MobileTREC SafeKidZone does.

SafeKidZone’s web app shows you the nearest police stations, sex offenders and crime incidents as a preventative measure. In an emergency the Panic Button notifies your friends with your GPS location in addition to our 24×7 call center – it’s like having multiple ICEs! But that’s not all, our call center can route a victim’s location, picture, vital information (i.e. appearance, medical concerns) and a situation report to 911 emergency services. That means that when help is on the way they know what to bring and where to bring it to.

We really took the time to think through what a person needs access to in an emergency while also anticipating what our 911 heroes will need to ensure that help can get to you quickly and efficiently. Why don’t you take some time to download and explore SafeKidZone today?

Filed Under: In the News, Safekidzone Tagged With: 911 cell call, ABC news, emergency, family safety, GPS, gps tracking, location based services, smartphone safety

Some Fear Location-Based Services

September 21, 2010

You’ve all heard of them: Location-Based Services (LBS). Many of you probably use them too when you use Foursquare, Facebook Places or Google Latitude. Since most modern phones have some form of GPS capability LBS services have been the next logical step for a lot of software vendors.

Modern cell phones are GPS enabled

You may notice that most of the apps built for your cell phone tend to send your location for no purpose other than to share with your friends for the sake of sharing. The fear that this article talks about has more to do with that fact when speaking about LBS, People are worried that sharing your location is a possible security risk, especially when sharing it with a large amount of people for recreation alone. However, for all the good and fun things LBS offers there is an inherent risk in sharing location when your location is shared irresponsibly. Chances are that most people will not think of the risk but rest assured, we have.

MobileTREC’s SafeKidZone is also a LBS but our philosophy on how to use LBS is quite different from other apps. Firstly, SafeKidZone encourages users to build a personal safety network that consists only of local people who one trusts and knows is able to help in an emergency. We recommend no more than 5 to a person, to limit “noise” or situational fog. Secondly our web app acts as a preventative measure that helps you avoid danger by getting to know your city and neighborhood.

The article also mentions text messaging as a good way to get a message out. We’ve got that covered SafeKidZone automatically text messages and emails your safety network to let them know you need help while also connecting you and your loved ones to our 24 hour call center to help coordinate action.

We’re here to help you use LBS responsibly and save a life so give us a try. Click here to sign up.

Filed Under: Safekidzone Tagged With: 911 cell call, foursquare, google latitude, LBS, location based services, loopt, safekidszone

CNN Lays Out Problem with e911

September 13, 2010

CNN has little hope for 911 cell calls

CNN has recognized the problem we’ve been talking about for months and months: the problem of cell tower triangulation when making a 911 call from your cell phone. Precious time can indeed be wasted when 911 services can’t find you accurately, but even when triangulation works fairly well, it’s not that accurate unless you’re in a best case scenario where it’s within 300 meters (984 feet) of your call.

Read the CNN article here and tell us what you think on facebook or twitter.

Keep in mind that for every minute wasted due to trying to get an initial fix on one’s phone with triangulation that the following questions still remain:

how much more time is wasted when the reading is inaccurate?
are people realistically going to check in with local 911 in each town they visit to get the local emergency number?
What happens when a 911 caller is not able to calmly explain the situation, especially if the caller is the victim?

It’s unfortunate that CNN believes that living in the mobile age means that getting emergency help from your cell phone is not as easy as it once was. This should not be the case since cell phones are tools meant to make life easier by virtue of their mobility and, nowadays, their advanced functions that let you organize your day, save all your contacts, find your way home, etc.

Cell phones are tools made to connect people and MobileTrec’s SafeKidZone is built on that philosophy. We connect 911 with the right PSAP for your area because we use real GPS, not triangulation. We connect you with your Safety Network right away – they are the ones who will help you even before 911 arrives. And, most importantly, we connect you with your community and family.

We already know the local emergency numbers so all you have to do is hit the panic button. Yes, the mobile age is here, but MobileTREC’ SafeKidZone is still making it easier to get help when you need it.

Filed Under: Safekidzone Tagged With: 911 cell call, cell coverage, cell tower triangulation, CNN, e911, how to use 911, panic button, psap, technology

How to use 911 Properly

September 7, 2010

Sorry for the radio silence in posting for the last little while. We have been very busy with making SafeKidZone easier to use for you and your family. In the next week you will see an enriched interface with videos, a set-up wizard and easier tools! So stay tuned!

In the mean time I wanted to post now because my Google Alerts have been lighting up with articles about the increasing use of cell phones for 911 calls. It’s like we’ve been saying for the last 8 months – 911 cell use is going to keep growing and growing. Well now it’s really reaching critical mass and more media outlets are piping up about it.

I found this article from the Daily Mail that was written as sort of a tutorial on how to use 911 properly! Perhaps it’s time to take a refresher course since 911 is being used differently from the days of the land line. Here’s the article. It’s very short and you should take special note of step 4:

4. If you call from a cellular phone, your call will be routed to the closest PSAP. (Public Safety Answering Point). Once the PSAP determines in what county the emergency is taking place, they will route you to the correct 911 Center. Note that cellular calls go to many cell sites and your call might not be answered close to where you are. You must describe to the Dispatcher the location and the emergency you are reporting.

Another thing we’ve been talking about rings true here. Cell calls may not go to the right 911 center. Why? Because of cell-tower triangulation, of course. So what happens if you don’t know where you are or if you are not able to tell 911 where you are? Big trouble. That’s why SafeKidZone sends your real GPS location to the PSAP along with your safety profile. That means that your 911 call will get to the right 911 center and they will know exactly where you are and what you look like whether you are able to give them your location or not.

That’s real life-saving safety. Share this post on your favorite social network, or through email and get the word out. We can make the world a better place and it starts with you downloading SafeKidZone today!

Filed Under: Safekidzone Tagged With: 911 cell call, cell coverage, daily mail, emergency, GPS, how to use 911, mobiletrec