Sharjah targets fastest emergency response

Sharjah - The number of serious crimes also dropped by 70 per cent.

The Sharjah Police have launched a strategy to help the UAE achieve the world's shortest emergency response time by 2021.
The heads of police recently held a meeting in which they discussed a comprehensive plan that  could cut the time  required to address emergencies, said Major-General Saif Al Zari Al Shamsi, Commander-in-Chief of the Sharjah Police.
Maj-Gen Al Shamsi said the police would soon launch an education programme to raise public awareness on the importance of quick response in saving lives.
During the meeting, the participants also reviewed current methodologies and explored global performance indicators and best practices. They pinpointed the areas that would need to be developed to meet the 2021 goal. 
"We have set a plan to improve the mechanisms of the operating rooms and develop projects that are tailored to the global performance indicators," said the chief  of the Sharjah Police.

'Great strides'
Maj-Gen Al Shamsi  said the emirate's police had made "great strides" in 2018 in terms of reducing their  response time rate.
In the past three years, it took emergency teams five minutes to respond to incidents. The Khor Fakkan police station, however, had managed to bring it down to 4.20 minutes last year. It was a rate that exceeded the target, Maj-Gen Al Shamsi added.
"We will set ambitious targets for this year's indicators and launch strategic initiatives to support it in order to achieve the vision of UAE 2021."
He said the relentless police efforts and well-chalked-out plans - which include the deployment of 'Asnad' and 'Anjad' patrols in various parts of the emirate - helped reduce the response time from eight to five minutes.
This contributed to achieving an increase in the sense of safety and security among the public - which reached 96 per cent last year.
The number of serious crimes also dropped by 70 per cent, the police chief said.

New smart system
Maj-Gen Al Shamsi said that thanks to the introduction of an advanced system, authorities could now bring their emergency response time to less than five minutes.
A quick-response management system (MDT) complemented the software that is installed on iPads linked to the operation rooms.
The system could generate all necessary information about the caller - including place of emergency and movement at the site - almost instantly. "The system also functions as GPS to guide the patrol to the location of the crisis at the earliest."
Aside from locations points and traffic information, it also displays details about the urgency of a particular incident, based on the call  received at the operation rooms. "This allows quick access to the site and further speeds up the  response."
The Khor Fakkan police station was among the first to have installed a smart device to receive messages from the operations room. It has also set up seven surveillance cameras on the main streets to monitor violations.
The smart device is connected to the operation rooms in Sharjah, Kalba and Dibba Al Hisn. It receives complaints from the public and covers a number of accident sites.
afkarali@khaleejtimes.com

• Sharjah