Law enforcement recounts their experience with Apple Watch fall detection calls
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When one police officer got a call reported to be from the Apple Watch fall detection feature, he went to find an elderly woman with blood on her face, unaware that her Apple Watch had called law enforcement on its own volition.
Apple introduced the fall detection feature on its Watch 4 series and hasn't looked back ever since, even on the lowly Watch SE which has an accelerometer as well. Here's the recount of the event by the police officer posting on Reddit under the nick Tropicott, reports AppleInsider:
So I work as a police officer and currently working the night shift and just finished up with a call that I wanted to share ‘cause it’s so cool.
I was sitting in my police vehicle writing up a previous file when my dispatcher goes over the air. I get dispatched to a call that we received from an Apple Watch due to its fall detection feature. History on the residence doesn’t come back with anything and all callbacks were negative.
I get to the residence and notice all the lights on. Someone is home. Knock on the door, no answer. Through the glass panes I notice pictures of a family but mostly of an elderly women so to me I kind of thought that’s who lived here. The door luckily was unlocked. I opened it, announced myself, and I just heard groaning. I ran upstairs and found the elderly lady laying on her back, half her face covered in blood. Right away I call Emergency Health Services for medical attention. She was telling me that throughout the day she had been feeling nauseous and when she got up to go to the kitchen, she fainted. Next thing she knew, she was waking up in blood. She wasn’t aware that the Apple Watch had called the police and I guess during her state she wasn’t in the right mind to understand how it called the police. All that to say, she is now being medically treated and will make a full recovery.
I always knew about the Apple Watch feature but damn was it cool to see it in action.
I was sitting in my police vehicle writing up a previous file when my dispatcher goes over the air. I get dispatched to a call that we received from an Apple Watch due to its fall detection feature. History on the residence doesn’t come back with anything and all callbacks were negative.
I get to the residence and notice all the lights on. Someone is home. Knock on the door, no answer. Through the glass panes I notice pictures of a family but mostly of an elderly women so to me I kind of thought that’s who lived here. The door luckily was unlocked. I opened it, announced myself, and I just heard groaning. I ran upstairs and found the elderly lady laying on her back, half her face covered in blood. Right away I call Emergency Health Services for medical attention. She was telling me that throughout the day she had been feeling nauseous and when she got up to go to the kitchen, she fainted. Next thing she knew, she was waking up in blood. She wasn’t aware that the Apple Watch had called the police and I guess during her state she wasn’t in the right mind to understand how it called the police. All that to say, she is now being medically treated and will make a full recovery.
I always knew about the Apple Watch feature but damn was it cool to see it in action.
Those Apple Watch owners who enter their age as 55 and above in the Health app have the fall detection feature enabled by default, while for younger owners it is an optional service as it would give too many false positives due to the heightened levels of activity in comparison with the more senior crowd.
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