Local paramedics create emergency locator device

JACKSON, Tenn. — After a life-hanging experience, Jonathan Harris and Danny Cupples are on a mission to help first responders one 911 call at a time.

Jackson native Cupples, a paramedic at Williamson County EMS, developed an emergency locating device with his former coworker Harris.

“He came to me and he told me about it, so we got together about five years ago and started. I wasn’t the inventor. He’s my best friend, and he an I started it,” Cupples said.

The device called ‘The Locator’ helps first responders easily locate homes during an emergency. Harris says it was created because of a life-changing experience.

At approximately 1:30 a.m., a call for help came into the 911 center. It was a mother screaming, saying her child was not breathing.

The ambulance was dispatched and the address was keyed into the navigation device.

Once on the caller’s road, the crew was unable to find the house causing them to respond late. Sadly, the child did not survive and that call has haunted the crew for over a decade.

“It’s actually if we had a map and put a little red dot, we have [caught] almost, not every state, but only in one week people are just going crazy over the idea,” Cupples said.

The Locator is a double-patented device that’s a smart led light bulb used to replace your existing front porch light. There is a locator app to go with the light bulb.

The app is free to download and uses WiFi to connect the bulb to your smartphone.

When 911 is called, the app takes over the light bulb and converts it to colors red, blue and white. It identifies the exact location of the 911 call.

“See there’s no other device out there in the United States like ours,” Cupples said. “It sits right besides your phone app.”

Cupples says the device was first used on Harris’s mother. They expect to have even more success with the device for years to come.