Following years of delays and technical issues plaguing the state’s overhaul of its aging 9-1-1 system, officials with the California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services (Cal OES) outlined a plan Wednesday to get the beleaguered project back on track, anticipating statewide deployment of the new Next Generation 911 system by 2030.
The report follows a year-long pause in the state’s Next Gen 911 rollout, during which state officials and a paid consultant investigated the scope of the problems with the new 911 system and how they might be overcome.
As NBC Bay Area’s Investigative Unit previously reported, some of the first agencies to use the new network reported dropped and misrouted 9-1-1 calls, with multiple dispatchers calling the issues a threat to public safety and saying they felt like test subjects.
State officials originally estimated every dispatch center in the state would be connected to the new Next Gen network by 2021, then later pushed completion estimates back to 2022.
Yet years later, and more than $400 million already spent on the project, just 23 of the state’s roughly 450 emergency dispatch centers are taking emergency calls over the Next Gen 911 network, according to Cal OES, though 9-1-1 caller location services and text-to-9-1-1 are available statewide.
“Smart, thoughtful changes are necessary,” said Cal OES Chief Deputy Director Lisa Mangat at Wednesday’s State 911 Advisory Board meeting. “We hope that you see we are committed to not only the success of the project, but open, transparent communication.”
Some advisory board members who have been pushing Cal OES to produce a written plan on the status of the project, however, said the new report appeared to be thin on details.
“I don’t see this as a plan,” said Santa Barbara County Fire Chief Garrett Huff. “This doesn’t have any benchmarks, no deliverables.”
Cal OES officials said the plan will be updated with specifics as they move forward and agree to new contracts with service providers
“This is the opening stanza of this plan,” said Cal OES Deputy Director of Public Safety Communications Steve Yarbrough.
One of the major proposed changes: Scrapping the previous model that split the state into four regions, with different service providers tasked with handling each region. State officials said they now plan to select one primary statewide provider and one backup provider.
“This change will eliminate problematic interfaces and handoffs in the current process while preserving resiliency necessary for 9-1-1 services,” the report stated.
State officials also said they plan to take on more of the burden when it comes to testing, alleviating the pressure on often understaffed dispatch centers, in addition to implementing new technology that will make it easier for dispatchers to handle calls during the transition.
“Under today’s project construct, the process for call takers transferring calls is complex and risky because California’s implementation of the Next Generation 9-1-1 design does not support such call transfers between legacy and Next Generation 9-1-1,” the Cal OES report stated. “These transfers are a regular occurrence between law enforcement, fire, and medical organizations. To make a transfer, staff at public safety answering points are required to use 10-digit, nonemergency lines or find other ways to hand off callers to the appropriate dispatching entity.”
How much the project will ultimately cost taxpayers is still a mystery, however.
“It would be irresponsible for us to guess along those lines,” said David Neill, chief counsel for Cal OES, in response to a question from NBC Bay Area.
When asked how taxpayers could be assured of adequate project oversight moving forward, Neill said the agency planned to emphasize transparency and communication.
The next 911 Advisory Board meeting is scheduled for February.
Source: NBC Bay Area