Emergency Infrastructure and Locational Extraction: Problematizing Computer Assisted Dispatch Systems as Public Good

Abstract

This article analyzes the increasing articulation between third-party software and emergency infrastructures through a focus on the computer-assisted dispatch system RapidDeploy, which purports to help 9-1-1 responders more accurately and efficiently respond to emergency situations. We build from research that focuses on overlaps between surveillance and emergency response to demonstrate how large-scale data mining practices—in particular, location extraction—are repurposed as beneficial, if not life-saving, measures. In focusing on the capacity to extract and analyze location in the name of public good, we discursively analyze how RapidDeploy’s official company blog constructs the benevolence of data collection. We then demonstrate how these viewpoints are reproduced in the news reports in one city—Charleston, South Carolina—where RapidDeploy has formally partnered with emergency response services. This analysis is used to demonstrate how words like “data” and “cloud” continue to be used as vague buzzwords for companies situated at the intersections of surveillance and civic function, and to argue for greater attention to how the trend towards platformization continues to blur the relationships between surveillance and emergency response systems. This case study examines the public face of this company and, as such, analyzes the language used to gain public assent for the software and its function.