Smartphone 9-1-1 applications need oversight

Looking at my smart phone, there seems to be an app for just about everything. There are apps that let you watch sporting events, movies and television shows on your device, while others provide turn-by-turn directions to your destination and tell you where the closest pharmacy is to your location. There are apps that let you receive a fake phone call when you want to extract yourself from an awkward situation, apps that enable you to locate your car when you’ve forgotten where you parked it, and apps that tell you when it’s the best time to run to the theater’s concession stand , so as not to miss the “good” part of a movie.

The rise of 9-1-1 smartphone apps

There even are apps that interconnect with 9-1-1 systems. Most are variations of the same theme:

• the user launches an app to contact 9-1-1 with the “touch of a button”
• information about the caller, including the location and pre-loaded medical history information, is transmitted with the call.
• users can even go as far as indicating the type of emergency—police, fire, medical or car crash—again at the touch of a button on some of the apps.

A few apps are focused on active shooter incidents. They enable authorized school and corporate security personnel to indicate that an active shooter incident is in progress, again with the touch of a button. The app indicates the location of the alert on a map, and while 9-1-1 is being contacted, they also alerts all federal, state and local law enforcement personnel in close proximity who have downloaded a companion responder app. According to the app developer, tens of thousands of  law enforcement personnel have downloaded their app to date.

Let’s walk before we run

The idea behind these apps is to make it faster and easier for citizens to contact 9-1-1 and to speed emergency response. It’s a great idea and the public safety community is always focused on improving outcomes for people in their time of need.

What’s not so good is that the app developers have been allowed to do their thing with little to no oversight.  Compile some code, upload it to an app store, and problem solved.  Or is it?

The National Association of State 911 Administrators (NASNA) recognized the problem and engaged the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), requesting that they establish rules to bring some much-needed scrutiny to this part of the app-development world. We agree with NASNA and recently submitted comments on how we think the Commission should proceed:

• Sensibly apply existing rules to address the reliability, security, interconnection, and accuracy concerns related to applications and systems that interconnect to the 9-1-1 system, such as smart phone 9-1-1 apps.
• Consider the broader potential for applications enabled by the Internet of Things (IoT) accessing 9-1-1 systems, which may present similar challenges and concerns as presented by the smartphone 9-1-1 apps.
• Consider rules that prevent users of smartphone 9-1-1 apps from overriding the location information generated by the device and indicating another location some distance away, a practice known as location spoofing.
• Hold smart phone 9-1-1 apps to the same high standard of accuracy, security, and reliability as other systems that connect their users to 9-1-1.
• Classify providers of smart phone 9-1‑1 applications as “originating service providers” and subject them to the same rules followed by wireline, wireless and Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) service providers for the limited purpose of 9-1-1 call delivery.
• Consider requiring self-certification of smart phone 9-1-1 apps before they are released to the public to ensure that they comply with industry standards.

Note: The full text of MCP’s comments are available on the FCC’s comment system here.

It will be difficult for the FCC to address the concerns of the 9-1-1 and public safety industry in a manner that does not suffocate innovation in the space. But these protections are critical to the safety and security for users of the apps and the operations of our nation’s public safety answering points (PSAPs) and first responders. There must be a process that ensures that smartphone 9-1-1 apps live up to the claims made by their developers. Imagine the tragedies that would occur—and perhaps already have—if these apps fail during an emergency. Oversight and protections are in place to ensure that the 9-1-1 systems works as it should when called upon—the same should hold true for any application or technology that connects to it.