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911 Blue Ribbon Committee members gather in East Arkansas for testimony, tour of centers Wireless phone fees, equipment upgrades, state-level oversight are topics
T
he Legislative Arkansas Blue Ribbon Committee on Local 911 Systems met in East Arkansas in July to discuss funding and other issues preventing county and city emergency communications systems from operating as effectively as possible. Sen. Linda Chesterfield chaired the meetings, which took place in St. Francis and Lee counties. Call center funding was the first issue to be addressed. Counties across the state annually spend $20 million out of their general fund budget to support these centers. However, they were meant to be self-supporting through the fees charged of landline and mobile telephone users. Landline users pay a percentage of their total phone bill, while mobile phone users pay a flat 65-cent fee. As Arkansans abandon their landlines in favor of mobile phones, a funding shortfall is created. “The state of Arkansas leads the nation with 35.29 percent of Arkansans having only a cell phone,” said Gary Gray, chairman of the state’s Emergency Telecommunications Service Board and the 911 operations manager in Little Rock. He said that 80 percent of the 911 calls placed in the state of Arkansas come from wireless phones. As 911 Blue Ribbon Committee members toured the St. Francis County Detention and Dispatch Center following its July 16 meeting, indications of support for a fee increase were tempered with caveats about the difficulty of passing such legislation. “You’re going to have to fight that battle with us,” Sen. Chesterfield told those on the tour. “We have to deal with this issue in an anti-tax climate . . . Everybody in here is going to have to step up to the plate.” Committee members also heard testimony regarding equipment and data upgrades, as well as suggestions that an oversight body be established to ensure that all 911 call centers in the state have the same level of technology and can, therefore, adequately communicate with one another. Next Generation 911 is a wireless telephone service that allows dispatchers to receive emergency communications by text message. Photos and videos can be texted to dispatchers to help them better respond to an emergency call. “The four big [wireless phone] carriers are ready for 911 texting,” Gray said. “911 call centers in Arkansas are not.” No call centers in the state have signed on for Next Generation 911 yet, but some have indicated an interest. The problem is that if call centers do not have the same level of technology, then transferred calls can be lost between jurisdictions. “We need to ensure all 911 centers have the exact same technology. We need to tell them not to proceed with Next now. If we don’t there will be some 911 calls that will fail,” Gray said. That is where a state-level oversight committee could help, he and others suggested. 28
Top: Dispatcher Alena Hillis fields a 911 call during the committee’s tour of the St. Francis County Detention and Dispatch Center in Forrest City. The committee also toured the Forrest City Police Department’s 911 Call Center. Bottom: Shane Dallas, emergency management coordinator with the St. Francis County Emergency Management office, describes what dispatchers see on the display screen when they receive a 911 call.
COUNTY LINES, SUMMER 2014
