While the never-ending march of technology innovation has become a force multiplier in the security industry, the aging legacy 911 infrastructure in the U.S. has been slow to adopt these enhancements.
Some stakeholders believe this struggle to adopt new technology could put the general public's safety in danger and stifle the sharing of crucial data to first responders during emergencies.
Next Generation 911 (NG911) systems comprise digital, internet protocol (IP)-based systems that allow for information to flow in a data-driven world, replacing the analog 911 infrastructure that’s been in place for decades.
Stakeholders pushing for these changes say 911's success and reliability will be vastly improved with NG911. NG911 will enhance emergency number services to create a faster, more resilient system that allows voice, photos, videos, and text messages to flow from the public to the 911 network.
The National 911 Program, through its website 911.gov, says NG911 will also improve public safety answering points’ ability to help manage call overload, natural disasters and transfer of 911 calls based on caller location data.
Highly publicized federal legislation has already drawn attention to upgrading 911 capabilities.
Kari’s Law, which went into force in 2020, ensures that anyone can reach a 911 call center when dialing 911 from an MLTS. The law is named in honor of Kari Hunt, who was killed in a motel room by her estranged husband in 2013. Her daughter tried to call 911 four times, but the calls never went through because the motel’s phone system required dialing “9” before any call to secure an outbound phone line.
Ray Baum’s Act emphasizes the importance of making dispatchable location information from all 911 calls available to public safety answering points (PSAPs) regardless of the technological platform used.
The ‘Haves and Have Nots’
Not surprisingly, funding is one of the biggest obstacles to getting legacy 911 systems updated to today’s technology. There are no federal mandates requiring states or municipalities to convert to NG911.
Canada has been deploying NG911 countrywide, while U.S. has “the have and have nots,” says Brian Fontes, CEO of the National Emergency Number Association (NENA), a non-profit professional organization solely focused on 9-1-1 operations, technology, education, and policy issues. California, Texas and a handful of other states have been leading adoption in the U.S., but other states lag behind.
One of the problems, he says, is the funding source for 911 services in general comes from surcharges on telecommunication bills or additional taxes or fees and that money is needed to maintain legacy 911 systems, leaving little or no money left for converting to NG911.
Most 911 calls originate from wireless devices, but most legacy systems still only accommodate voices. Some 911 centers have “information rich 911” that can process texting that can better prepare first responders to heading to emergencies and the 911 professionals doing early triage before responders arrive at the scene.
“For those 911 professionals on the scene providing emergency communication and kind of the response structure, having data available to that 911 center is extraordinarily important,” Fontes says. “To strip out that vital information may mean life and death. It may mean the safety of a community.
“When I dial 911, will I be able to do voice? Will I be able to provide data? Will I be able to send my medical information? Can I send video or pictures that could help that 911 professional triage the situation?”
On the response side, NG911 would allow experts to analyze data and push out additional information that could aid in the response, such as seeing cues in a video that callers might not detect would be valuable to responders.
Data Makes a Difference
Enhanced 911 has been widely adopted nationwide, allowing emergency dispatchers to see the location from landlines. Workarounds were created to allow dispatchers to see generation locations from wireless phones.
“It allowed us to know who the appropriate to jurisdictions were within that area for that specific location. It allowed us to have a very brief, very small snapshot of data to respond to calls today,” says April Heinze, Chief of 911 Operations for NENA.
With NG911, “we can receive things like health data. Telematics providers can provide additional information on a car crash, such as how many occupants have been seat belted at the time, how severe the crash is, what kind of speeds were involved, and things like that,” she said.
The federal government has typically been “hands off” with 911 because it’s a local entity, Heinze says, and it allows the states, regions or local governments to make decisions.
In the late 1990s the federal government started requiring states to identify an executive or official from an emergency department to be responsible for 911 systems. This would provide coordination and communication during emergencies and put infrastructure in place for any federal grants that become available. There have been some congressional discussions about NG911 funding, but they haven’t moved to the later stages.
“We'll be a nation where we have a few responders responding to a situation where they don't have all the data that would benefit them. We'll have 911 professionals that won’t be able to provide the best triage at the time of the call because limited or no data is available,” Fontes says. “There's consequences for a lack of leadership and that means less-than-adequate or less than the most beneficial 911 services available to the public.”
Some states are leading the way. In California, Fontes says, the state has developed a test lab to make sure that equipment for the 911 services is interoperable. Deployment has begun in smaller counties to ensure the service works effectively and there are plans to roll the technology out throughout the state in the next year.
Other states are building what Fontes calls “building blocks” for NG911. Texas is divided up into regions or districts that are working to deploy the technology, which can take 6 months to 2 years to convert from a legacy system. Staff must also be trained on how to handle the new technology and “there is definitely a learning curve there,” Fontes says.
NG911 in a true “end-to-end state” is actually three separate columns of technology, says Mark Fletcher, ENP, Vice President of Public Safety at 911inform. A 911 center must evolve from a facility that just takes audio calls to a multimedia-collaborative contact center environment.
“You need a network in the middle that can receive multimedia content and route it based on that data. And that's where there's federal and state funding to build that part of the network,” says Fletcher.
“But that doesn't get you an end-to-end 9 1 1 solution. You still need the contributing data on the ingress side, so all of the corporate telephone systems, the cellular carriers, everybody's got to create that data and put it in the network, otherwise you're doing nothing.”
For emergency responders and managers, Fontes says the first step to getting NG911 conversion off the ground is to educate their decision-makers on the need for it and help them understand the cost and work involved. NENA is a standards development organization, but it also creates resources and best practices to help with the transition.
States should focus on building emergency services IP networks that allow data streaming so 911 centers can read, interpret, and accept the data. Fletcher says federal and state governments need to look at funding and grant programs to get the process going.
“The next generation 911 network has to happen,” Fontes says. “The industry is just starting to really wake up and grasp that point.
Communicating with the state’s 911 coordinator is also important because in many respects, volume discounts may be available to a local community for any negotiation the state may be engaged in, which has been happening in California.
“It's kind of unfortunate that Canada will have a better 9 1 1 service than the United States countrywide. And I hate to see a disparity due to wealthy communities versus less wealthy communities in their abilities to provide 911 service. All communities should have access to Next Generation 911,” Fontes says.
