ConcealAlert MayDayAlarm Logos
When you call 911, you're only getting one third of the available resources from that department who are even capable of responding.
Decatur, IL (PRWEB) March 31, 2014
According to the Wall Street Journal, police response times average 11 minutes nationwide, whereas the average violent crime occurs within a 90 second window. This large gap in police response, likely similar to response times for paramedic and firefighter response times, prompted Central Illinois resident Prescott Paulin to do something about it, tapping the power of the crowd to provide assistance to those in need.
The first step in his plan is empowering citizens who carry concealed weapons to know where they are and are not allowed to go with their firearms. This spawned the development of ConcealAlert, a new Apple iOS application designed to help provide alerts to these law-abiding citizens before they cross into a restricted area and risk hefty fines or revocation of their permit. The goal is to map "geofences" around the restricted areas, and Paulin is raising money now to assist with this goal.
ConcealAlert will be available by April 15th, 2014 and will initially launch for Chicago, Illinois. Other areas will be mapped as funds are raised to support the mapping of each individual Illinois city. Paulin plans to work with conceal carry instructors in the State of Illinois to design a program that students will want to use, and possibly offer a referral program to incentivize the promotion of the app to other firearms owners through friends and teachers.
The next step beyond creating this application is to connect citizens in life-threatening situations with people who are willing and able to help. That platform will be called MayDayAlarm, and it is patent-pending.
Paulin, who previously served as a law enforcement instructor for the Pentagon Force Protection Agency, knows the challenges faced with inter-agency collaboration. "When you call 911, you're only getting one third of the available resources from that department who are even capable of responding. There are three shifts at every department. The other two-thirds don't even know there is an issue, even if it's happening right next door. If we work to implement a solution where off-duty assets are added back into a response equation, you're growing your available emergency resources potentially by 300%, and then structuring a coordinated response to be location-based rather than time-based. This further improves when you add trained and capable civilian responders into that equation."
Paulin's prior role as an Emergency Preparedness Coordinator at Battelle allowed him to better understand the challenges faced by law enforcement and firefighters, noticing similar gaps in response times faced on Marine Corps Base Quantico while stationed there years earlier. "When you see all these amazingly capable people walking around, trained by our government, and someone has an injury, it doesn't make sense that you're waiting around for up to an hour for some local asset to show up and take your friend to the hospital. Everyone has cell phones. If you equip them with communication such that anyone capable of responding has the opportunity to do so, you're saving lives. This isn't just on military bases though. Imagine the possibilities at Walt Disney World, Six Flags, or anywhere else where you've got a lot of people around. You're going to have a Doctor, Police Officer, or military member in that crowd who can help if they know what's going on around them."
Paulin was invited to attend the Launch Festival in San Francisco, where his platform was first unveiled to the general public, and positive feedback from potential investors was obtained. The Launch Festival staff provided the ConcealAlert / MayDayAlarm team with a complimentary Demo Pit booth at the event in February 2014. Further input is now being sought from law enforcement partners in order to create a supportive climate for the rollout of the controversial MayDayAlarm platform.
