It's believed to be a first for the Sarnia Police Service.
Officers responded to a person in need of assistance earlier this month, after the longitude and latitude coordinates of a property in Bright's Grove were received by 911 dispatchers from an Apple watch.
Cst. John Sottosanti said the information was sent after a fall was detected on the device.
"The individual had fallen and couldn't get up," said Sottosanti. "So the watch was able to alert and call 911 and we responded along with the paramedics."
Sottosanti said officers had to force entry into the residence because the individual, in their 70s, was by themselves.
"Fortunately, it was not of a serious nature, but medical attention was required."
Sottosanti said this new technology seems very effective and can be very useful in assisting people in these types of situations.
"To the best of our knowledge, this is the first time [we've responded to this type of call,]" he said. "It's an automated app so if you're connected to it and something does happen where you're detected to have fallen or [there has been] some sort of traumatic incident, it goes through the app and the app will send out a 911 call to the location."
While the response had a successful result for Sarnia police, the new technology hasn't been welcomed by all first responders.
The detachment said its frontline members spent time looking for a car crash that didn't exist on January 26.
"The fire department, emergency health services and police all got the call for a car crash; however, after combing the area determined that nobody was in distress and there was no crash," Cst. Monika Terragni said in a news release. "Police were able to confirm that the 911-call came from an Apple watch after a skier took a fall."
"We are asking users to disable the crash detection if you’re skiing or snowboarding with others in a populated area, or to check your device immediately after a fall to ensure it did not call 911. It is also important to keep your device up-to-date with the latest operating system as developers continue to tweak this feature," she added.
