TUCSON, Ariz. - The Tucson Fire Department is currently working on developing a new program aimed at helping frequent 911 callers.
The SMART program would help identify "non-emergent" callers and send a special unit to respond to them if necessary.
A #new program could soon help sift through non-emergency & emergency calls a bit better - all while helping frequent callers. #MORE on @kgun9 pic.twitter.com/6sTXNdqFOh
— Veronica Acosta (@VeronicacostaTV) January 22, 2019
This would allow for TFD units to be free to respond to emergency calls.
"We want to have the resources available and ready for people that are having acute medical injuries right. If you're having a heartache we want to make sure that we can get to you as quickly as possible and if we're on scene of something else that might not be life or death and yet it certainly is an emergency to that person at that time then the system itself can be more efficient and that's the whole goal of this, sending the right resources to those people when they need, need but what type of need," said Barrett Baker with the Tucson Fire Department.
The program is similar to the TC-3 Program TFD currently has in place, but the SMART program would actually send a unit to the caller.