Nationally Uniform 911 Data Could Spur NG-911, NHTSA Told
A single national system for 911 data could promote upgrades to next-generation 911, said public safety and emergency-number officials. Comments were due Wednesday on a National Highway Traffic Safety Administration request for information (docket NHTSA-2016-0069) about setting up a nationally uniform data system for 911 public safety answering point (PSAP) call data and local and state 911 system operations data (see 1607070008). Commenters said possible barriers to a national system are convincing software vendors to share data and locating enough funding.
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“The ability to compare data from an existing NG911 agency versus a non-NG911 agency should significantly show that the capabilities of a NG911 agency will be far superior to a non-NG911 agency,” the International Association of Fire Fighters (IAFF) commented. That could make resistant agencies more receptive to upgrading, it said. The National Association of State 911 Administrators (NASNA) said detailed cost information about existing NG-911 systems could help others predict their own upgrade costs. National information about the status of NG-911 upgrades could help policymakers see how their state measures up to others, it commented.
A national system would help states better plan 911 services and target funding to areas that need it, NASNA said. Mission Critical Partners, a public safety communications consulting firm, said it “will help to support interconnected and interoperable PSAPs which will be in a better position to provide back up, manage overflow, alternate routing and disaster management for 911 operations with the data that would be available.”
For public safety, it “will be useful to identify critical tasks, average time on tasks, identify and establish performance measures, and identify any weaknesses within the 911 system,” IAFF said. “This information will be useful in establishing the necessary funding for the upkeep and purchase of 911 equipment and CAD [computer-aided design] software to keep up with the rapid growth of technology. The information may allow for comparable cities, counties, or states to better plan and coordinate the operations of a 911 center based on similarities with call volume, demographics, staffing, finances, technology, and other factors.” A national system would help public safety perform community risk assessments and target areas where disease or illegal drugs are being reported, it said.
The National Transportation Safety Board said nationally uniform 911 data would improve the efficiency of the agency’s investigations. That would allow the agency to “compare investigative cases, identify trends, and provide more informative evaluations to PSAPs and other stakeholders,” improving transportation safety, it said. “A nationally uniform 911 data system would provide essential information to assist strategic planning, governance decisions, and further improvements to the 911 system and its operation at all levels of government. We also agree that these data would be useful to private sector companies providing support services to local and state 911 agencies.”
It would be easier to develop and share maps among jurisdictions using geographic information systems (GIS) data, said the National States Geographic Information Council. A nationally uniform 911 GIS dataset might have prevented the death of a woman who in 2014 lost control of her vehicle and drove into a pond, the council said. The woman called 911, but an emergency operator in a neighboring jurisdiction took the call and couldn’t access geospatial information for the woman’s location, it said.
The federal government should guide, coordinate and facilitate sharing, the National Emergency Number Association said in comments. Next-generation 911 will provide uniform data, NENA said. “Where current E9-1-1 systems vary among and between vendor implementations, NG9-1-1 systems have carefully-designed, mandatory data standards that provide a powerful basis for uniform emergency call and incident data collection,” NENA wrote. The government should use standards to achieve any national 911 data effort, it said.
Possible barriers to setting up a national system include funding and willingness to share data, some commenters said. “Information sharing is crucial for all entities involved in public safety,” IAFF said. “The most accurate times are recorded in the 911 center.” But “information sharing is currently poor at best” and “must be improved to have an impact,” it said. CAD software vendors must be willing to share information with other software companies, including competitors, and it can be difficult to get permission for data sharing from 911 system vendors, it said. NASNA shared the CAD vendor concern: “It is important for PSAPs to be able to transmit data from their CAD system to another CAD system, but it is not always possible due to a lack of interoperability between different CAD vendors’ products.”
Other possible challenges to establishing a national system include cybersecurity, paying for the system and getting everyone to use it, said NASNA. Mission Critical Partners agreed: “Other considerations are how a uniform data system will be paid for, who will operate it, and how to encourage, if not mandate, adoption of a uniform data system. Stakeholder consensus on these issues is essential to successful implementation and usefulness.”