HASTINGS, Neb. – In an emergency, every decision, second, and piece of information is vital for authorities to appropriately respond to each unique situation.

New technology is now allowing the Hastings Police Department to better respond to emergencies, while effectively managing the time of 9-1-1 operators.

"Once these new features rolled out, we really felt that was something significant for the citizens of Hastings and Adams County that would be beneficial," said Hastings Police Captain Jason Haase. "That texting, translation, the ability for us to see what you're seeing, we felt was significant enough that we brought it on board."

These upgrades are part of the existing Prepared Live system at the Hastings Police Department and 9-1-1 center that has been in place for more than a year.

For the first time, people can text Hastings Police in the event of an incident that doesn’t require emergency attention, like an animal on the loose or a street light out.

The text system can also translate over 140 languages to English to allow a non-english speaking party to seamlessly communicate to a dispatcher without a language barrier.

"It's a relatively small expense in the grand scheme of things for what it allows the public to do and how they communicate," said Haase. "More than ever before, people are on their phones, and they're texting. So why not give them an additional tool to be able to text non-emergent things to our 9-1-1 dispatchers?"

People are also now able to send back live video from their smartphone directly back to the 9-1-1 dispatcher by clicking on a simple link to give authorities a direct eye on what they may be responding to.

The link is secure and only allows police to access the camera while the call is connected.

Haase says the combination of these three new features will alleviate the stress and workload on 9-1-1 dispatchers.

"It's basically notifying us in a way that we can go do something about it without tying up that dispatcher's time away from a 9-1-1 call." said Haase.

The new Prepared Live system is now live, and you can text the Hastings Police Department at 402-461-2364 to get in contact with local authorities for non-emergent queries.