All this week, the Timmins Police Service is promoting a cellphone app that it endorses. It says it could save your life by helping get emergency help to you quickly.
Communications coordinator Marc Depatie says “what3words” divides the entire planet into ten-foot squares, and assigns three words to each one. If you’re on the highway, in the bush or wherever and your need first responders, the app gives you those three words.
“When you call that in to the dispatch centre, they will use those same three words to determine exactly where are,” Depatie explains. “This enhances the ability for first responders to reach you in a timely fashion.”
Depatie says the app doesn’t track you or clog up your phone. He says he uses it himself when hunting.
“I’ve been in the most remote bogs that you can imagine and it finds me and it tells me table, chair, lamppost, whatever. The three words correspond to your exact location.”
Imagine how handy that is, when every tree, rock or roadside looks like any other.