How an innovative app is helping the emergency services save lives by pinpointing location

Developed by Nick Sutton, a Strategic Operations Manager with the Scottish Ambulance Service, EmergencyLocate was created during the COVID-19 pandemic to help emergency responders overcome gaps in traditional caller location technology. The company was supported through the Accelerator Programme at Geovation, the innovation hub founded by Ordnance Survey (OS), where it developed and refined its pioneering approach to emergency location services.

Today, the platform is being used by emergency services across the UK and internationally, supporting more than 47,000 incidents spanning medical emergencies, missing persons, water rescues, and situations where callers are unable to speak.

EmergencyLocate enables control rooms to send a secure text message to a caller, allowing responders to obtain highly accurate location data from a smartphone. The platform also supports two-way text messaging, language translation, 3D mapping, and SAR Deploy, a navigation aid that helps responders find the exact scene once they leave their vehicle.

A key part of EmergencyLocate's effectiveness is its use of trusted OS location data, including the OS Emergency Services Gazetteer (ESG). By combining precise smartphone locations with authoritative OS mapping and addressing data, the platform helps emergency services identify and navigate to incidents with greater confidence and accuracy. This trusted geospatial information underpins many of the location-based services that emergency responders rely on every day.

The technology is already proving its value with organisations including the Scottish Ambulance Service, Scottish Mountain Rescue, and Humberside Fire and Rescue Service. Together, EmergencyLocate's innovative location tools and authoritative OS data help responders pinpoint people in need more quickly, particularly when location information is limited, unclear, or unavailable.

In our latest video case study, Humberside Fire and Rescue Service shares how it is using EmergencyLocate to support frontline operations, improve incident response and help crews reach casualties faster, making a real-world difference to emergency responders and the communities they serve.

Another Geovation startup is also helping the blue light community - for more information, visit Startups helping the emergency services | OS.