New York City Completes Major 911 System Overhaul

By: News Staff on January 09, 2012

Most Popular

Most Commented

Internship Programs Develop the Next Generation of Emergency Managers

"Sarah, that's an awesome idea/tool that localities can use in the potential development of an intern"
Sink or Swim: What the Titanic Teaches Us About Social Media

"Fascinating. What a fun and interesting way to tie history to current preparedness efforts. Good l"
The Public's Curiosity About CMAS/WEA

"It will be offered through the national cellular networks, available to local public safety organiza"
Breaking the Cycle of Reliance on Federal Help After Disasters

"The Goverment Organizations should be a teaching and training entity for the local VOADS. This is no"
Homeland Security Degrees

"http://landing.cu-portland.edu/homeland-security Concordia University Portland has a fully accredite"

New York City officials announced last week the completion of a major 911 system overhaul — the first major communications integration within the “cellphone era,” according to city officials.

For the first time in New York City’s history, officials said, the 911 emergency call takers from the NYC police and fire departments and the Emergency Medical Dispatch services are now all located on the same floor of the Public Safety Answering Center in Brooklyn and are operating on the same technology.

The system is capable of handling 50,000 calls per hour — more than nine times the peak hourly call volume that took place on 9/11 and more than 40 times than the average daily call volume. New York City receives more than 11 million 911 calls each year.

With the new system, call takers can now see on-screen maps of a caller’s location. The upgraded system also has critical redundancy to NYC’s emergency communications infrastructure.

“We now have all of the city’s emergency response agencies in one place and on the same system, with state-of-the-art technology that can handle the large number of calls we see during big emergencies,” NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg said in a statement.

The system upgrade, called the Emergency Communications Transformation Program, started in 2004. Officials said it will help improve and streamline data sharing among public safety agencies. Additional upgrades were also made to NYC’s emergency telephone and radio networks to help with the overall improvement of the system.

You may use or reference this story with attribution and a link to
http://www.emergencymgmt.com/safety/New-York-City-Completes-Major-911-System-Overhaul.html

Cellular Service Being Rolled Out in NYC Subway

News Staff

Comments

Add Your Comment

You are solely responsible for the content of your comments. We reserve the right to remove comments that are considered profane, vulgar, obscene, factually inaccurate, off-topic, or considered a personal attack.