Public service answering point with automatic triage capability

• US 6,370,234 B1
• Filed: 06/16/1998
• Issued: 04/09/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 06/16/1998
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Kroll Family Trust
• Original Assignee: Kroll Family Trust
• Inventors: Kroll, Mark W.
• Primary Examiner(s): Tsang, Fan
• Assistant Examiner(s): Escalante, Ovidio
• Application Number:
  US09/098,315
• Time in Patent Office: 1,393 Days
• Field of Search: 379/37, 379/45, 379/309, 379/265, 379/266, 379/39-42, 379/47, 379/48, 379/52, 379/58.1, 379/67, 379/201, 379/279, 379/49, 455/404, 455/433, 455/440, 455/456, 455/457, 455/512, 455/527
• US Class Current: 379/45
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 11/04 with alarm systems, e.g. fire, police or burglar alarm systems

Abstract

A public service answering point system is taught that will perform a triage on incoming calls both fully automatically and with caller interaction. The system will progressively shave out redundant calls and give high priority to calls that may represent a violent crime in progress.

Claims

1. A public safety answering point comprising:

phone call receiving circuitry;

a central processing unit connected to said circuitry;

operator consoles connected to the central processing unit;

the central processing unit executing a stored program to select the highest priority call for presentation to an operator console wherein the stored program assigns a priority on the basis of at least two factors; and

said central processing unit determines a time period since a last emergency vehicle was dispatched to a call area and uses said time period to determine that the call is a new incident based on said time being greater than a predetermined period of time thus increases the priority of the call.

2. The public safety answering point of claim 1 in which the call location is used as one of the at least two factors to assign priority.

3. The public safety answering point of claim 1 in which the probability of a call having a duplicate message is used to assign priority.

4. The public safety answering point of claim 1 in which the priority is increased if the caller is away from the roadway of an already reported incident.

5. The public safety answering point of claim 1 in which a caller is prompted to enter location information with a telephone keypad.

6. A method for processing emergency calls in a public safety answering point comprising the steps of:

connecting to a plurality of calls;

assigning a priority score to each call; and

answering the call with the highest priority score wherein the priority is assigned on the basis of at least two factors; and

determining a time period since a last emergency vehicle was dispatched to a call area and using said time period to determine that the call is a new incident based on said time being greater than a predetermined period of time thus increasing the priority score of the call.

7. The method of claim 6 in which the caller location is used to calculate the priority score as one of the at least two factors.

8. The method of claim 6 in which a probability of the call having a duplicate message is used to calculate the priority score.

9. The method of claim 6 in which the priority score is increased if the caller is away from the roadway of an already reported incident.

10. The method of claim 6 in which a caller is prompted to enter location information through a telephone keypad.

11. The method of claim 6 in which caller information is automatically stored even if a caller hangs up.

12. The method of claim 6 in which the time a caller has been on hold is used as one of the at least two factors to calculate the priority score.

13. The method of claim 6 in which a cellular phone call receives a different priority score than a private wired phone call.

14. A method of processing emergency cell phone calls in a public safety answering point comprising the steps of:

connecting a call;

prompting an entry of highway location data via a telephone keypad; and

using the data by a central processing unit to prioritize the call for processing; and

determining by said central processing unit a time period since a last emergency vehicle was dispatched to a call area and using said time period to determine that the call is a new incident based on said time being greater than a predetermined period of time and thus increasing the priority score of the call.