As boats quickly turn to bows for hunting season, Missouri 911 dispatchers want outdoorsman to keep a summertime mobile app installed on their smartphone. Fire Chief Jeff Dorhauer of mid-Missouri’s Osage Beach tells Springfield television KOLR the software called “Raft Up” will help emergency responders find people on land and water.
Missouri emergency responders urge hunters to use boating app (photo/Mo. Dept. of Conservation)
“We expect our Uber to be able to find us quickly and efficiently, we expect pizza delivery to find us quickly and efficiently, but nobody stepped up and said we want our emergency services to find us quickly and efficiently,” he says.
RaftUp was an app originally developed in Arkansas but has already seen widespread use around Lake of the Ozarks.
“It has been a long time coming,” says Linda Clemons, who adopted the tech this past summer in Camden county.
“We have elderly, we have the tourists, and they are used to dealing with their large cities but this is a totally different area,” says Clemons, Assistant 911 Director for Camden County. You can’t just tell us that you are at the Lake of the Ozarks because that doesn’t tell us where you are at.”
The large ring buoy in the program would indicate the app is only for use on the water, but that’s not the case. Camden County Dispatch is urging hunters to keep it installed on their phones year round.
“It can be used if you are traveling and especially on the highways that don’t have intersecting roads or when you are way between mile markers. You can use it anywhere,” explains Clemons.
Camden, Morgan, Miller Counties, and Osage Beach all currently have the technology up and running.
Clemons also says that Camden County now has the ability for text-to-911. While text-to-911 might be great for certain situations, they always prefer voice communications like a phone call.
By Missourinet television partner station KOLR in Springfield