Marshall County Sheriff Matthew Hassel is excited to announce the launch of Prepared Live in the dispatch center.  Built by the company Prepared, the software enables the Central Dispatch Center to livestream, receive multimedia, and receive location from mobile callers in real-time.  This addition to the Sheriff’s Department technology suite will significantly improve their ability to effectively and efficiently respond to emergencies in the community.

Participation in the video during a call is completely voluntary and consent of the caller is required.  If the caller consents, they will receive a livestream link via text from the dispatcher, enabling them to activate the live video.  It is important to note that the video call function does not provide the Sheriff’s Department with access to the contents or settings of a caller’s phone.

“We can’t do anything else in the phone, we can’t see anything else on the phone. It’s just simply borrowing their camera to give us a live feed from the situation that they are reporting to us,” said Sheriff Matt Hassel.

Originally founded as a company focused on school safety, Prepared is a mission-driven organization with a passion for improving public safety.  In creating an app to help mitigate school emergencies, the team discovered that valuable data is lost in existing 9-1-1 processes and set out to address the problem.  Since its public launch in October of 2021, Prepared Live has helped protect over two million American citizens in cities around the country.

By using Prepared Live video, multimedia, and location information, the Marshall County Central Dispatch hopes to shorten the amount of time between the call received and the dispatch of first responders and to gain more accurate information from callers that can be shared with responders.

“Just think about an active shooter. Man, if I could be able to see inside of a building on my way to respond to where the active shooter is in a building, and what the active shooter is wearing. It gives me help to what I’m looking for when I get into the building,” said Hassel.

To learn more about Prepared and Prepared Live, visit Prepared911.com or contact the Marshall County Sheriff’s Office at 574-936-3187.