Meeting mapping and database standards for certification was the topic of a recent workshop NKAPC hosted for the Commercial Mobile Radio Service (CMRS), a state agency. CMRS is charged with administering funds for wireless emergency 911 service throughout Kentucky in accordance with state and federal regulations.
Phone customers throughout Kentucky pay a fee as part of their monthly bill that goes to support local emergency dispatch services. If that phone is a land line, the fee goes directly to the dispatch center. If the phone is wireless, the fee goes to Frankfort for distribution to the user’s local dispatch center.
Over the past decade, the number of homes with land lines has decreased as people rely more and more on cell phones.
“Local dispatch centers are losing revenue from the decreasing number of land lines,” said Tom East, a senior GIS specialist at NKAPC. “They’re still getting money, but they have to go through the state to get it. When you place a cell phone call, you aren’t always in your local area. You could be in Dallas, Lexington, or Cincinnati, but the fee for your mobile phone goes to the state.”
In order for the dispatch centers to get the money from the state, they must meet certain standards and qualifications. Those standards assure the state that local dispatch personnel can quickly and accurately route emergency service providers to cell phone users when they call for help. The recent workshop was one of five held around the state to educate dispatch officials about standards for mapping data used to locate those callers.
“When a call comes in from a landline, the address is located in a database,” he explained. “If a call comes in from a cell phone, we’re able to locate that person using GIS mapping. This is extremely helpful if the caller is unable to speak or give their location.”
“NKAPC provides this mapping data to Kenton County, Erlanger, Covington, Campbell County, and Pendleton County dispatch centers,” said East, “so the State felt it made sense for us to host one of their state-wide workshops.”
Twenty-six dispatch center officials from seven surrounding jurisdictions attended the recent CMRS event held at NKAPC.