Nottinghamshire Police to use new app that could save lives

After successful piloting, Nottinghamshire Police are using the ‘What3Words’ app to provide quicker response times to precise locations.

‘What3Words’ is an app which divides the world into a grid of 3m x 3m squares to give each square a unique 3 word address. At the Control Room, Nottinghamshire Police are now using the system to respond to incidents more efficiently.

Using the three word address system, callers can precisely describe where help is needed and allow the force to get resources straight to the scene. For example, the address ‘///slate.season.metals’, will take you to a precise spot next to the Council House in Nottingham's city centre. 

The three word address system is particularly effective for rural areas like fields, wooded areas and farms where a location can be hard to pinpoint. Prior to using What3Words, resources such as helicopter fly-overs may have been dispatched to search for and allocate to an incident.

Superintendent Paul Burrows, from Nottinghamshire Police’s Contact Management department, said: "We are moving away from the old style questioning - ‘Where have you come from?’, ‘Where are you going?’, ‘What can you see?’ 

"These questions take time and aren’t always that accurate. Asking for a 3 word address has meant we have saved valuable time locating incidents. 

"The Control Room staff that have used What3Words for an emergency call, have said how easy it is, and they were able to find the location a lot quicker than they previously would have.”

The app is available on both iOS, Android or browser, and works offline without a data connection. The 3 word address format is consistent anywhere in the world and available in 36 languages.