In every school shooting, getting help to the scene is critical. But a bottleneck of the 911 system can impose minutes-long delays in dispatching police to critical incidents.

Dozens — or even hundreds — of simultaneous phone calls from panicked students, teachers and parents can overwhelm call takers’ ability to sort out important information. That information must be relayed to radio dispatchers, who must figure out which units are close enough to respond quickly, then send them the information they need.

Now there’s an app for that, said Brett Titus, CEO of Parker-based LifeSpot. https://www.lifespotapp.com/

Titus, a 26-year veteran Denver police officer and metro SWAT team member who has responded to more than 2,800 high-risk tactical operations, recognized the information barriers and decided to do something about it.

Titus and his team developed the LifeSpot smartphone app that bypasses 911 phone lines, allowing school staffers to ask for help and for police to self-dispatch, while notifying the 911 center of the incident. The app tracks who is responding and from where they are responding, as well as providing users school access. Notifications and information flow simultaneously.

By limiting the input of information from phone lines, the app gets first responders on the way much more quickly, Titus said.

Speaking at a panel discussion on school safety at the Steamboat Institute’s 14th Annual Freedom Conference in Beaver Creek last week, Titus emphasized the need for delivering faster, more complete information to first responders. He said the typical response time through a dispatch center can be six minutes or longer.

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“We do it in less than six seconds,” he said. “We let everybody know, all the staff, law enforcement, fire, EMS, 911 in less than six seconds. Then we give them tools to quarterback the whole thing. And that includes communicating with everyone inside.”

Not only does the app notify people, but through GPS technology, it shows user locations to law enforcement. This allows police to actively plan entry tactics on the fly.

“One of the very valuable things for LifeSpot is the Commander app,” said Titus. “The commander can look at a computer screen with real time GPS and see everyone inside, see where they’re at, see where their resources are.”

He added: “Everything is this bird’s eye view … and then (communication can happen) with every single person inside.“

According to Titus, the LifeSpot app currently is being used in several dozen outlets in Colorado, including law enforcement agencies in Arapahoe, Douglas, Elbert, El Paso, Weld, and Conejos counties as well as in the states of California and Texas. Within each of those agencies there are schools, churches and other businesses that use the app. Titus declined to identify any specific end users for security reasons.

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