If you get into trouble in the Murcia region of Spain and you call 112 (Europe’s 911) from your 3G phone, the dispatcher may remotely switch on your cell phone’s video camera, microphone and speaker and give you a simple directive: point your camera at the emergency. First responders watching the feed will assess the crisis. If you are about to be mugged, you will find it useful to point your camera at your mugger and say–as residents of Murcia have begun to do, “The police are watching you right now.” (En Espanol: “La policía te esta viendo.”)
I wrote about next generation 911 in this week’s TIME magazine, on newstands today.
