Walton County Communication Training Officer honored for using technology to help save caller’s husband

WALTON COUNTY, Fla. (WALA) -This was the scene on April 5th when a woman called 911 after husband fell off their boat in the Choctawhatchee Bay. Communications Training Officer Heather Mayo was able to use RapidDeploy to help the caller find her husband.

“I was able to pinpoint exactly where he was whenever she dialed 911, said Communications Training Officer Heather Mayo. “She started going a little more to the left when she needed to go to the right, so I was able to tell her.”

RapidDeploy works when a dispatcher sends a code to a caller’s phone asking for permission to use the phone’s camera. Once accepted a dispatcher can see exactly what they see. Mayo was able to use this to help the caller restart the boat before pulling him back on board safely.

Friday, Mayo was surprised with a very special award from the founder and CEO of RapidDeploy. Her team was there to see it.

“The amount of training that Heather must have had on the platform and put herself through to leverage every component of the platform to have a successful rescue in a very difficult situation like that. She set the bar for being a superstar,” said Co-founder/CEO of RapidDeploy Steven Raucher.

Mayo says she’s humbled to be the first person to receive this award, but she says it wouldn’t be possible without her team.

“This is what I do. I want to help people, but it was my team. It wasn’t just me at all. It was the entire sheriff’s office because they’re the ones that put us on RapidDeploy,” said Mayo.

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