Question: What is full next-generation 911?
Answer: Having a robust GIS solution so that you can graphically control your boundaries and the different things you need to control for 911 call routing. It’s having calls delivered in via Internet Protocol (IP); it’s having that IP network delivering those calls get as close as it can to what the vision of i3 [a technical standards document crafted by the National Emergency Number Association (NENA)] is through NENA.
It is having a method to receive those IP calls at the PSAP and take advantage of the new data technology that IP brings with it at the PSAP to help the call-taker and the dispatcher most effectively and efficiently get the first responders to the need of the caller with the most data that’s useful for them.
Q: How much of a factor is GIS in all this?
GIS is moving forward at leaps and bounds in the PSAP world. This is the future. This is where people have made sizeable investments not just from the public safety aspect, but from county and city and state and municipality aspects. There are jurisdictions out there that have dozens of layers of GIS mappings.
The more intricate and sophisticated your GIS solution is the more capability you enable. For 911 the most basic core component is routing boundaries. The future of that is being able to manipulate those boundaries on the fly and change the routing engine to where you have the ability to change the way calls are routed as things change in your environment from a normal state to a crisis.
An example is the Super Bowl. You could change the way wireless calls are routed around the venues. Maybe they go to mobile command centers locally; maybe they go to special call-takers. Whatever that need is.
That’s the grandiose scheme. The other scheme is it could be as simple as a car wreck on the highway. Some of these municipalities get literally 200 calls from wireless callers about a car wreck on the freeway. Being able to put those in a queue with an automated message that says, “We know about the car wreck on the 5 at Wilshire Boulevard,” will give you greater ability to answer more 911 calls.
Q: How common is text to 911 today?
We’ve deployed it in Durham, N.C., with Verizon Wireless. We’ve deployed the entire state of Vermont with Verizon Wireless, and the state of Iowa with Iowa Wireless.
We’ve got other jurisdictions out there where we don’t have a carrier who says, “I’m willing to do text to 911.” So we’re giving them either a 10-digit phone number to use as a texting number or we’re giving them vanity short codes. And then they can give those to the hearing impaired and they can give them equal access to 911 that the hearing community has.
The other thing that’s being deployed is cellphone pictures and video. We’ve got many deployments of that. It’s not an open environment where a PSAP can get spammed by a bunch of pictures and video and things like that. It’s a case where the call center has to be talking with the person or texting with the person and say, “I took a picture of the getaway car, and I can send it to you.” We scan through all of it to make sure the PSAP stays safe.
Q: What’s it going to take for NG911 to take off around the country?
Our biggest barrier is funding. No one could have predicted five years ago what our funding state was going to look like. It is desperate in a lot of cases. I wish I had a crystal ball and could tell you when that was going to turn around.
Q: What about the argument that call-takers might become burdened by too much data and unsightly video?
The reality is the newer generation of call-takers can handle much more data then we’ve even scratched the surface of giving them in a usable form. The generation that’s coming on is used to Xbox and PlayStation, and they are pretty savvy users of technology. They can absorb an incredible amount of input and make the right decisions in a quick amount of time.
Q: How to you proceed with NG911 without national standards?
There’s still a lot that has to be defined. The NENA i3 document that we know today is not the NEMA i3 we will all be using in 10 years. The big outstanding thing about i3 is what are carriers going to do? It says carriers are going to deliver calls by the location of the caller with the call, but are they really going to do it? Nobody really knows for sure. That’s the giant outstanding question.
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Autor(en)/Author(s): Jim McKay
Quelle/Source: Emergency Management, 17.08.2012
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