Axon and RapidSOS recently announced a partnership to deliver real-time data to telecommunicators & first responders. We have a lot in common: our shared mission to protect life, our shared desire to equip public safety with the technology they deserve, and our shared vision to look beyond the status quo. This partnership has roots into the origins of why we entered the emergency communications field in the first place.

When Axon conducted our initial research into the emergency communications space, we toured hundreds of agencies and communications centers around the world. Our goal was to understand their operations, but also to become intimately familiar with both their future ambitions and current frustrations. We found a community of dedicated servants that tirelessly work to keep their communities safe, but were often frustrated by an abundance of unaddressed challenges and tools that were not up to the task.

Within “real-time operations”, three areas emerged as critical - situational awareness, informed collaboration, and operational excellence. We got to work building a platform that incorporated elements of CAD (computer-aided dispatch), but also integrated modern cloud-based capabilities to ingest and distribute real time location, audio, and video streaming from body cameras, vehicle-mounted cameras, drones, and other sources. This was the beginning of Axon Respond, our real-time operations platform.

Throughout our discussions with communication centers, we heard again and again that RapidSOS was a lifesaving solution that had become a critical part of their toolkit. Because of their ability to deliver accurate caller location and other actionable lifesaving data to call takers and dispatchers, in remarkably short period of time they’ve won the adoration of most Emergency Communication Centers (ECCs) across the country.

The idea of providing a true picture of the reporting party was remarkable. RapidSOS has since enabled ECC teams to respond faster and more appropriately - which has been a common aspiration for as long as they have been in existence.

This partnership between Axon and RapidSOS is an exciting leap forward for public safety agencies. With it, dispatchers, supervisors and first responders will be empowered with comprehensive visibility spanning the initial call though to the resolution of the incident in the field. This will lead to faster responses, increased safety for everyone involved, and more effective use of limited resources.

Together with RapidSOS, agencies will be able to choose how they want to access this new situational awareness. They will soon be able to view it within the RapidSOS platform, through Axon Respond live maps or even combine this visibility with dispatching capabilities within Axon Dispatch.

We are excited to partner with RapidSOS to make this a reality and look forward to sharing upcoming developments in the months and years ahead. Together we will leverage the power of technology to protect life.