Software created by Bountiful company helps emergency dispatchers


5 photos
Save Story
Leer en español

Estimated read time: 2-3 minutes

This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.

BOUNTIFUL — You'll never hear Cheri Pickett complaining about a slow day at work. As the supervisor for Bountiful Dispatch, she knows better.

"It's kind of weird that it's so quiet right now," said Pickett. "Just at any second, it could go crazy."

One of the craziest days occurred last month, when it seemed like almost everyone had an emergency.

"They were able to field somewhere around 150 calls that came in during, I believe, was a five and a half hour period," said Lt. Jon Purcell with the Bountiful Police Department.

It's not that something bad happened in Bountiful. Just further north, at the Davis County Sheriff's Office in Farmington, construction crews mistakenly cut emergency phone lines.

The calls were re-routed to Bountiful, which is what's supposed to happen and has happened for years.

However, thanks to new software put into place last year, the transition was seamless, especially when Bountiful dispatchers were dispatching Davis County crews.

"Rather than getting on the air and telling Davis County dispatch we have another call for you and here are the details, our dispatchers were able to just type the information in, hit a keyword, and it sent all that information to Davis County and over there it just pops up on their screen," said Lt. Purcell.

That might not sound like a big deal, but in the dispatching world, it is.

Dispatch centers often use different software, depending on the company that sold it to them.

Often, each software system speaks a different coding language, and they don't communicate well with each other.

However, FATPOT Technologies, a company based in Bountiful, developed software that fixes the problem.

"Basically, yes, it makes them all as if they were one system," said Jonathan Wesley Sr., the founder of FATPOT, which stands for 'For All The People Of The World.'

Wesley Sr. explained how by using his software, dispatchers in one city can dispatch emergency crews in another city a lot easier and faster.

"Time is of the essence, and there are lives saved today, people that are alive today, just because their system was turned on," said Wesley Sr.

Wesley Sr. is a businessman, but to him, this project is personal. His mother died in Florida, in part, because of dispatching delays getting her to the hospital.

"We created this technology to save lives, so that the tragedy my mother experienced doesn't have to happen again," said Wesley Sr.

The software is currently being used in a handful of other countries, as well as departments across the country.

"We've dealt with some of the largest things like the Joplin tornado to the Boston bombing, to the large fires in California," said Wesley Sr.

It's all in an effort to make an already tough job a little easier…and faster.

"We're saving lives, and that's a very good feeling to know we're making a difference," said Wesley Sr.

Photos

Most recent Utah stories

Related topics

Utah
Alex Cabrero

    STAY IN THE KNOW

    Get informative articles and interesting stories delivered to your inbox weekly. Subscribe to the KSL.com Trending 5.
    By subscribing, you acknowledge and agree to KSL.com's Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.

    KSL Weather Forecast