By Roger Croteau
San Antonio Express-News
SAN ANTONIO — Existing 911 systems in Texas, designed 40 years ago, are near the end of their technological usefulness, according to a new report by the Commission on State Emergency Communications calling for “Next Generation 911.”
The new system would handle text messaging, voice-over-Internet protocol, and cell phone camera images and video — which could help those who respond to emergencies as well as those who report them, advocates say.
“We want to build a platform that will be highly adaptable so it can accommodate the next wave of communications devices,” said Paul Mallett, CSEC executive director.
“Being able to get text messages into a call center will be a great benefit, especially for the hard of hearing or those with speech difficulties, or in a Virginia Tech shooting-type incident where people are in danger and can’t speak,” he said.
People at emergency scenes could send a photo or video with their cell phones to a 911 operator, who could then forward it to first responders still on their way there.
At the Bexar Metro 911 Network District, Executive Director Bill Buchholtz expects to spend $24 million over the next five years implementing the new system in Bexar, Comal and Guadalupe counties.
The network, like others in metro areas, gets the bulk of its funding from a fee charged to phone customers — 22 cents per month for land lines and 50 cents per month for cell phone accounts.
Buchholtz said he expects text messaging to be the first such new 911 service available here, as early as 18 months from now.
“We may be a little closer to it than some areas because we are doing some preparation now,” he said. “We are in the process of switching from 1940s analog and copper technology to fiber optics. We’ve been using baling wire and bubble gum to keep the system together. Every new ... device that comes along is a tremendous challenge to us.”
The Alamo Area Council of Governments oversees 911 service for seven other San Antonio-area counties and has spent about $1 million in the past two years on the transition, with another $1.4 million budgeted this year.
“We’re right on track,” said AACOG Deputy Director Dean Danos. “This project is critical to Homeland Security.”
Besides the metro areas, CSEC officials want the Legislature to allocate $19 million for the next two years to help rural areas start implementing the system.
Next Generation 911 will save lives, said Comal County Commissioner Greg Parker, a CSEC board member.
“We know what needs to take place, we just need to install it,” he said.
The 18-page report is available at www.911.state.tx.us.
It says a photo forwarded through 911 could give a SWAT team an idea of what is happening in a building where hostages are being held or give medical personnel a chance to assess an accident scene as they’re being dispatched.
If a disaster or terrorist attack knocks out service to a 911 call center, the system would allow calls in the area to be rerouted to another call center. That could have helped last year in Hays County, when a construction crew cut a phone cable, interrupting 911 service for most of the county for several hours. People who called 911 got a recording instead of a dispatcher.
Right now, if emergency workers need to get an evacuation order or other message out, a Reverse 911 system can call all land line phones in a specific area. But Next Generation 911 would also allow dispatchers to send a warning message to all the cell phones in the target area.
“That technology is still a few years away, but it’s coming,” Buchholtz said.
He said the improvements won’t all come at once, but as each 911 district brings its network online, they will be interconnected.
Mallett, the CSEC director, said he thinks most parts of the state will install the new system during the next six years.
“It’s not going to be like somebody throws a switch and we have Next Generation 911,” Buchholz said. “It’s evolutionary.”
The new system has been designed and successfully tested in five communities around the country by the Transportation Department.