Big changes are coming to 911 services in Alberta.

On Wednesday, Alberta RCMP launched Next Generation 911 a system designed to improve public service and officer safety by transforming how emergency calls are placed, data is shared and police response.

“The biggest benefits the citizens of Alberta are going to see is improved caller accuracy,” said Alberta RCMP Operational Communications Centre (OCC) director , Chris Spence, in a phone call with Postmedia Thursday.

“Historically with 911 on a cell phone, we’ve been reliant on their distance to the closest cell tower and a triangulation of location, which can give us a large radius of 10,000 metres to 50 miles.

“With next gen 911, it’s going to be based off the handset itself. It’s no longer a radius of 50 km of the cell tower

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