Officials in Jersey City are hoping to cut down on medical response times with a new system in place.

Jersey City launched a new app Friday that locates volunteer first responders who are closest to the person in distress and sends them an alert to spring into action. That first responder can then get to the emergency quicker.

"It's a GPS-enabled app on your [phone] that connects with the dispatch center and the dispatchers can see on the map where all the responders are at any time," says Doug Mathieson, an EMT for Jersey City Medical Center.

Medical responders believe they will be able to cut response time in half when someone calls 911 in an emergency with this program.

Bugs in the system are still being worked out, but the 50 trained volunteers should be online in about a week.