Next Generation 9-1-1 Coming to Clarion County

Ron Wilshire

Ron Wilshire

Published August 19, 2018 4:31 am
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CLARION, Pa. (EYT) – Captain Jean-Luc Picard of Star Trek: The Next Generation fame would often issue a command of “Make it so,” and Clarion County 9-1-1 is on its way to make NextGen911 so.

“The truth of the whole matter is that we communicate with the general public, and with using NextGen911, we are adapting to today’s available fields of what people use to communicate. And, the texting is the first step of that,” said Jeff Smathers, Clarion County Director of Public Safety (pictured above).

Because most 9-1-1 systems were originally built using analog rather than digital technologies, public safety answering points (PSAPs) across the country need to be upgraded to a digital or Internet Protocol (IP)-based 9-1-1 system, commonly referred to as Next Generation 9-1-1 (NG911).

According to Smathers and 911.gov, the success and reliability of 9-1-1 will be greatly improved with the implementation of NG911, as it will enhance emergency number services to create a faster, more resilient system that allows voice, photos, videos and text messages to flow seamlessly from the public to the 9-1-1 networks.

However, unlike Picard on Star Trek, making it so will take more time than one episode.

“I hope people don’t misunderstand that this is going to happen all at once,” Smathers said.”It is going to happen over a period of time. Each one of these protocols has to be tested to find out if there are any bugs in it before they put it out to the public and it is reliable. We’ve already got calls that people say they’re along the river…Which river? Well, I’m not sure.  Suddenly we’ve got a problem because if you don’t know where you’re at, we are struggling to find out where you’re at, as well. We have to start asking for landmarks, and where you’re headed, and what kind of events you attended. I’m trying to pin down your location.”

next-generation-911

At one time when all calls coming into 9-1-1 were from landlines, dispatchers automatically had their location because it was at a fixed point.  The location of 9-1-1 calls from a cell phone can now be triangulated from some towers, but the location from someone texting presents some unique challenging in determining location.

“The problem with texting has always been some agencies didn’t have good connections to it, or it was spotty in usage and that type of thing,” Smathers continued. “Some counties didn’t offer it at all and didn’t have the capabilities, but it’s something that collectively across the state and most of the United States texting is something that they want to see. We get calls already sometimes on tablets where it used to be a home phone or cell phone. Well, today it’s coming through on an iPad.  It’s becoming more convenient for them, and the younger generation is all about texting.”

However, even if 9-1-1 starts using texting and eventually photos, video, and other information, it will still only be for emergencies.  There are always a few news stories about some people calling 9-1-1 to report that they didn’t get all of their french fries in a takeout order, but such cases can be prosecuted with penalties because let’s face it—saving lives is a serious business.

“This is basically another avenue for people to use so that we can connect with these individuals. You’ve probably been places where you couldn’t make a phone call, but you could send a text because it’s a digital media. The phone call itself may not be able to go through, but the text can.”

“They looked at that and said if we can use that, we’d certainly like that coverage. That’s when they started to look at more of the digital side. Anything they can do to improve it — and there are many areas where coverage even to this day is somewhat spotty. As people are dropping their home phones and going more to the cellular as their main phone for their home, this is kind of a no-brainer and had to happen.”

“When it’s all said and done, NG911 will also improve PSAP ability to help manage call overload, natural disasters, and transferring of 9-1-1 calls and proper jurisdictional responses based on location tracking.”

While the technology to implement these new IP-based 9-1-1 systems is available now, the transition to NG911 will involve much more than just new computer hardware and software. Implementing NG911 in states and counties nationwide will require the coordination of a variety of emergency communication, public safety, legislative, and governing entities.

In Clarion County and other counties, VOiP (Voice Over Internet Protocol) calling is used more and more.  For example, most telephone calls through a cable provider are actually being made over the Internet.

“The problem with the VoIP calls is the accuracy of where you’re at was not always good. If you use a landline, we can tell exactly where you’re at because it’s a fixed position.  Cell phones are triangulated from different tower sites. To clean that up, they decide to go to Next Gen that is a better clarification to pinpoint where you are. VOiP is a different format, and you’re actually calling from the Internet.  There wasn’t a real good way of telling where that connection was coming from.  They cleaned that up, so the VOiP phones could be more accurate.  Are they perfect? No. It used to be that VOiP phones were a whole town off.  For example, if you have Comcast, and if you do any Internet searches, the results may come back for Oil City because that’s where the server is located.  That’s why the VOiP phones were cleaned up and included in the Next Gen upgrades.”

The journey to Next Generation 9-1-1 all goes in steps, and texting is the first portion of it. Once they get that completely rolled out and in place, they will start on the other protocols.

“The text calls are translated in the system to us,” said Smathers. “There’s going to be a lot of training on our part, but as far as being a useful media for us, it is. There’s always equipment on our end, and in addition to training, there’s going to be some expense for equipment on our end. I’m sure we will find some funding assistance for it. Any time you add another platform to anything it adds to the cost.”

“The biggest thing is that we don’t want to lose someone on a call. That’s the worst that could happen when you’re talking with a person on the call and then the call disappears. Our policy is to call them back and continue calling them until we make a reconnection.”

The next big thing and benefits

“I’m going to guess that the next thing they do after texts will be the ability to send photos. That’s going to be a little bit tougher because on our side, it’s going to need a lot of upgrades to pull in that kind of data. Not only that, but we’re going to have to increase our data connection speeds. What we have now in no way is going to be fast enough to pull down pictures or video because there’s a lot of data in those.”

“Sometimes callers can describe a situation ten different ways.  Believe it or not, some callers don’t know where they’re at.”

“With the additional information, we’re getting such as a picture or video later on. After it is activated, we will get a real good look at what is actually going on. So, if it is a multiple car accident, (we) will be able to see how many vehicles are involved, how bad it really is, and then (we) will be able to help the public and respond so much quicker. What we rely on now are the first people at the scene. We take the information from the first caller. Sometimes the caller doesn’t have all of the information, but if you have a photo coming in that you can blow up, you can see there are ten cars or whatever the case may be. That helps us find out how many ambulances we are going to need, what kind of response we’ll need, how many companies we need to be sending out, so we see what (is) the scale of the event.”

Clarion County is also part of a 10-county coalition that can help if Clarion needs assistance.  Three dispatchers are scheduled for anticipated high use hours and two per shift at all other times.

This Next Generation 9-1-1 initiative carried out by the Transportation Safety Advancement Group (TSAG), engaged key public safety representatives to identify and prioritize data to be communicated via NG911 as actionable information to field-level emergency responders. Findings were consolidated into  NG911 “What’s Next?” Final Report of recommendations to the US DOT to help form the basis for national priority emergency responder information protocols associated with NG911 systems.

The National 9-1-1 Program’s mission is to provide federal leadership and coordination in supporting and promoting optimal 9-1-1 services. This Federal “home” for 9-1-1 plays a critical role by coordinating federal efforts that support 9-1-1 services across the nation.

The 9-1-1 systems were designed to provide a universal, easy-to-remember number for people to reach police, fire, or emergency medical assistance from any phone in any location, without having to look up specific phone numbers.

The National 9-1-1 Program works with states, technology providers, public safety officials, and 9-1-1 professionals to ensure a smooth transition to an updated 9-1-1 system that takes advantage of new communications technologies. It also creates and shares a variety of resources and tools to help 9-1-1 systems.

Created by Congress in 2004 as the 9-1-1 Implementation and Coordination Office (ICO), the National 9-1-1 Program is housed within the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration at the U.S. Department of Transportation and is a joint program with the National Telecommunication and Information Administration in the Department of Commerce.

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