A NEW app is being used by Gwent Police to help easily identify precise locations when reporting incidents and they are urging people to download it.
Phone app ‘what3words’ has assigned each three-metre square in the world a unique three-word address that never changes and are easy to say and share.
For example, the South Wales Argus building in Cardiff Road is ///angle.slang.notes, and this method is said to be as accurate as GPS coordinates. The idea behind the app is that an incident can be reported with an exact location, which is more precise than a description of the area.
Around 35 English and Welsh emergency services have signed up to the system.
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A spokesman for Gwent Police said: “Functionality for our systems was introduced in July this year (2019). It allows our force communication suite staff to input a What3Words location into our call handling system to verify an incident location.
“Staff have also been given guidance on how to send a link to a callers mobile telephone number as a text message.
“The caller can press the link on their smart phone which opens the What3Words app or website to provide the caller with their current location.”
On average, the What3Words app has been used approximately 28 times a month since July by Gwent Police.
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