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HomeMy WebLinkAboutIR 7183 ' INFORMAL REPORT TO CITY COUNCIL MEMBERS No. p' a�R�'Ufa .oFEOer� To the Mayor and Members of the City Council April 27, 1987 rexA Subject: 911 Update +a�a The purpose of this informal report is to provide a review and status report on the implementation of the 9-1-1 emergency call service. Over the past five months, a committee, consisting of personnel from agencies which will be directly or indirectly affected by the 9-1-1 system, has been meeting to design the successful implementation of the system. The mission of the committee is defined as follows: To implement the citizens's decision to provide enhanced 9-1-1 emergency call service, which will result in improved and accelerated access to public safety services in the event of a police, fire or medical emergency. Background In April of 1985, citizens of Fort Worth along with other Tarrant County voters approved the creation of the Tarrant County 9-1-1 Emergency Assistance District. Over 86 percent of the voters voted in the affirmative. Since the election, Tarrant County telephone customers have been paying, monthly fees to fund the District. Those fees are: Residential Lines .20/line - Business Lines .46/line Business Trunks .74/line Following the August 1987 cutover, these fees will be used by the District to pay non-recurring costs to Southwestern Bell and General Telephone for the system hardware. These costs are estimated to be about $2.6 to $2.7 million. Additionally, the District will pay monthly service fees of $115,00 to $120,000. Key Features of 9-1-1 -------..------------- The proposed 9-1-1 enhanced communications system will provide three key features: Automatic Number Identification (ANI) Automatic Location Identication (ALI) Selective Routing (SR) ANI and ALI will provide the 9-1-1 calltakers with the caller's telephone number and street address. These features are very important when callers phone in_and are confused, panicked, ill, hurt or unable to speak. The Selective Routing (SR) feature ensures that calls are automatically routed to the 9-1-1 answering point in the appropriate jurisdieation. This is a critical feature as jurisdictional boundaries of emergency reponse agencies often do not correspond to telephone exchange service boundaries. ISSUED BY THE CITY MANAGER FORT WORTH, TEXAS �--- INFORMAL REPORT TO CITY COUNCIL MEMBERS No. 7183 p.2 �4t0*? To the Mayor and Members of the City Council April 27, 1987 Subject: 911 Update /0TS System Configuration -------------------- One of the first decisions in implementing the 9-1-1 system was the designation of the Primary Public Saftey Answering Point (PSAP). This answering point would receive all 9-1-1 calls for emergency assistance served by Fort Worth public safety agencies. The Fort Worth Police Department's Communications Division will serve as the PSAP, and the Fire Department's Fire Alarm Section will serve as the Secondary Service Answering Point (SSAP). The SSAP will process calls in the event of excessive call volumes at the PSAP. One objective in the configuration of the system is to minimize the liklihood that the SSAP would be used as a primary 9-1-1 contact. The system configuration which has been developed assume the following: - A 9-1-1 emergency call is defined as a call for emergency assistance that will result in the call routed for dispatch. - Calls received over the 9-1-1 line that are not 9-1-1 emergency calls will be routed to the system recording. This is intended to discourage callers from using 9-1-1 as a general information number. If non 9-1-1 calltakers are available, calls for information will be forwarded to those calltakers for processing. This will free up the 9-1-1 lines for emergency calls. - 9-1-1 calls will be assumed to be of a higher priority that those received on the current seven-digit emergency number. - 9-1-1 will not be utilized as an informational number. - Staff will seek to minimize calls that are abandoned prior to answering by the calltakers. Staffing Now that the configuration of the system is essentially complete, it is necessary to adjust calltaker staffing to the level needed to implement the system. The Police Department has requested 18 additional calltaker positions, at an annualized cost of $329,787, in order to adequately process 9-1-1 calls. These eighteen positions will provide personnel to staff 3 calltaker positions for three shifts. Council direction on remaining policy issues as well as actual experience processing 9-1-1 calls, may necessitate an adjustment of staffing levels. Due to the lead time required for hiring and training, it will be necessary to fund these positions for five months in the current fiscal year. You may recall that during the budget process, funds for 9-1-1 staffing was omitted until more accurate cost estimates could be prepared. ISSUED BY THE CITY MANAGER FORT WORTH, TEXAS -- INFORMAL REPORT TO CITY COUNCIL MEMBERS No. 7183 p.3 ��440Rp�o To the Mayor and Members of the City Council April 27, 1987 xrax��s Subject: 911 Update Remaining Policy Questions - What is an acceptable level of service for calls which are not 9-1-1 emergency calls ? Will it be acceptable to place these calls on hold, or utilize recordings ? Staff recommends that lines carrying calls which are not 9-1-1 emergency calls be given a slightly lower priority than the 9-1-1 lines. This prioritization will enable calltakers to process all 9-1-1 emergency calls in the most efficient manner possible. It may be necessary during peak 9-1-1 call volumes to utilize recordings to inform callers that all non-emergency lines are busy. Periodically calls may be received where there is no verbal response. It is the direction of the Council that the Police Department attempt to call the party back prior to dispatch or dispatch immediately to the location displayed ? Staff recommends that a call back attempt is made prior to the dispatching of a unit to the address displayed. Conclusion Based upon Council direction, staff will prepare cost estimates for funding staffing adjustments through the end of the current fiscal year. Additional information will be provided upon request. J0'�fc�,s",,-." Douglas Harman City Manager ISSUED BY THE CITY MANAGER FORT WORTH, TEXAS ----