NAPLES, Fla. (WINK) — When you dial 911, the difference between life and death is often measured in seconds.
For decades, emergency dispatchers have relied on GPS technology that places a caller’s location as a simple dot on a map. However, that technology has long faced a literal "blind spot": altitude.
Traditional 911 tracking provides dispatchers with a horizontal radius of where a caller might be. While effective in an open field, it struggles in the vertical world of modern architecture.
This leaves first responders guessing which floor to search, wasting precious time in high-rise buildings or multi-story complexes.
To solve this, agencies across Southwest Florida are partnering with private tech firms to overhaul emergency response. One such company, 911locate.ai, is based in Collier County.
The company is currently partnering with the Collier County Sheriff’s Office to implement software that can:
Identify Vertical Location: Pinpoint exactly which floor a caller is on.
Precision Mapping: Create 3D digital footprints of entire neighborhoods and communities.
Real-Time Data Feeds: Stream sensitive information directly to first responders’ mobile devices while they are en route.
It’s the brainchild of911locate.ai founders Dain Bolling and Elliott Singer.
"You're going to save people's lives, and you're going to get first responders to the location of an incident faster than it's ever been done before,” said Singer.
In 2023, Florida lawmakers passed House Bill 301. It requires schools to digitally map their floor plans and work with law enforcement to integrate them into their systems.
Director of Sales Mark King told WINK Investigates he sees a significant vulnerability in private-sector businesses.
"Less than 1% of the entire private sector in the United States is digitally mapped."
WINK Investigates spoke with several organizations that are happy to use the technology and have their buildings 3D-mapped.
David Jacinto, senior pastor at Naples United Church of Christ, said the decision to implement the technology was simple. He believes it keeps every person who steps into his church safer.
"With all the stories that we've seen in the last few years, it's created a heightened sense of awareness that this could happen. Not unlike school shootings, could it happen here? Most of us decide school, probably decide not. But then we see school shootings happening in seemingly protected places that are well-protected and not vulnerable to those kinds of situations. So when we see these things happening around the world and around the nation. Yeah, it created a heightened sense of awareness,” Jacinto said.
Kristin Coury, with the Gulfshore Playhouse in Naples, also had the theater 3D mapped by911locate.ai.
“With almost 90,000 people coming through this building every year, safety is priority number one,” Coury said. “This is a great piece of mind, knowing that we've got this, this technology, because it's obviously cutting-edge technology."
But where Jacinto and Coury see peace of mind, some cybersecurity experts see vulnerability.
“When we think of all these advancements in technology we have, we don’t often consider the additional risk,” said Jordan Kelly with firm FTI Consulting.
Kelly believes that 3D mapping a building generates information that could be used for nefarious purposes.
“You are creating a high-value asset, a data asset.”
She is more concerned about schools and government buildings that are 3D-mapped.
“This would be a national security concern that needs to be considered,” she said.
Chief WINK Investigates reporter Chorus Nylander also spoke with cyber security expert Ian Marlow from the company Fitech, based in Florida. Marlow said he agrees the information could be sensitive and potentially acquired through a data breach, but with the right investment in cybersecurity, he believes it’s a manageable risk.
“The technology and creation of it is amazing, the responsibility to ensure the product and its data is used for its intended purpose is all surrounding the security,” said Marlow.
911locate.ai says it is also mapping entire neighborhoods and communities.
