By the end of 2022, Nebraskans who need to call 911 will also have the option to send text messages, photos and videos to emergency dispatchers.
Those 21st century communication options will be available once the state has transitioned to a Next Generation 911 system, which officials say will also provide faster, more reliable service.
States across the country have been upgrading to Next Generation 911, known as NG911, which connects to the internet rather than analog.
The new system will change the technology underpinning how callers are located. Rather than locating someone by using their distance to the nearest cell tower, as happens under the current system, the new one will locate someone using geospatial data — essentially the longitude and latitude information that lives inside your cellphone.
David Sankey, the state 911 director, said the technology should cut down on call transfers between dispatch centers.
“The goal is to locate the caller more accurately and route those callers to the correct 911 center more often,” he said.
Earlier this year, the State Public Service Commission voted 4-1 to award a five-year, $8 million contract to Lumen (formerly CenturyLink) to provide the new 911 services. The contract will pay almost $815,000 the first year and $1.8 million each of the remaining four years.
The commission will then have the option to extend the contract for another decade.
Officials have been working since 2016 to transition to a new 911 system. On Feb. 12 of that year, it took emergency responders 40 minutes to find the location of what ultimately turned into a double homicide and 12-hour standoff at a home in unincorporated Douglas County.
The event shed light on the inadequate system for finding wireless callers in emergencies. While authorities have said that finding the house sooner may not have changed the outcome, the new 911 system should bolster the ability to find callers in those types of situations.
People in and near Omaha already have the option to text 911, but Kathy Allen, Douglas County’s 911 director, said officials don’t recommend the option unless someone has an impairment or is in a situation in which they cannot speak.
The state contract establishes a statewide network that will serve the state’s 70 call centers that take 911 calls. The call centers will be grouped by region, which will provide redundancy — meaning that if one call center goes down, calls can be transferred to another center, Sankey said.
The first region of the state to be connected to the network will be the southern Panhandle, about one-third of the western part of Nebraska, Sankey said. That could happen later in 2021, he said.
The next region on tap would be southeast Nebraska and would include the Omaha metro area, Sankey said.
Crystal Rhoades, the commissioner who voted against the contract with Lumen, said she’s concerned about the number of 911 outages in Nebraska connected to Lumen.
Between 2015 and 2020, the commission reported 19 outages, 10 of which were tied to CenturyLink, which rebranded itself as Lumen Technologies last year.
Past outages are the result of the state’s “legacy” analog 911 system, Sankey said. Outages are often caused by someone cutting a cable while digging in the ground, he said.
Rhoades said the option to send texts, photos and videos to dispatchers will be important in several emergencies, including domestic violence or active shooter situations.
“There are a number of huge benefits to doing this,” she said. “I’m totally in favor of the project. I just think we should have gone with a company that is more reliable.”
The contract includes measures that will allow the state to hold Lumen accountable, Sankey said. The state expects 911 services to be available “99.999% of the time or greater,” which equates to about 5 minutes of downtime a year, he said.
But some recent 911 outages have lasted a few hours to a few days.
“We expect the system to work all the time,” Sankey said.
Our best Omaha staff photos of February 2021
Hand-painted bonbons for a Valentine's Day special are flavored with, from left, raspberry, passion fruit, vanilla bean salted caramel and milk chocolate, from Sugar Makery BitterSweet in Council Bluffs.
A Gibson Les Paul is one of more than 70 guitars in the exhibit.
A crane lifts a small plane that had its landing gear collapse while landing at Eppley Airfield on Friday. Two people were on board the plane; neither was injured.
Creighton's Damien Jefferson is called for a foul against Georgetown's Jamorko Pickett at CHI HealthCenter on Wednesday, February 03, 2021.
Avante Dickerson talks to members of the media after he announced he was signing to play football at the University of Oregon at Omaha Westside High School on Wednesday, February 3, 2021.
Two people jog around Prairie Queen Recreation Area as a freezing fog covers the region on Tuesday, February 02, 2021.
Frost hangs onto a fence in Omaha on Tuesday, February 02, 2021.
Rime ice forms on the trees at the Chalco Hills Recreation Area on Tuesday, February 02, 2021.
reece.ristau@owh.com, 402-444-1127, @reecereports
February 14, 2021 at 07:15PM
https://omaha.com/news/state-and-regional/all-nebraskans-should-be-able-to-send-texts-photos-to-911-by-end-of-2022/article_69ff5c70-5f37-11eb-ac47-db166e32dcd3.html
All Nebraskans should be able to send texts, photos to 911 by end of 2022 - Omaha World-Herald
https://news.google.com/search?q=Send&hl=en-US&gl=US&ceid=US:en
No comments:
Post a Comment