911 Officials Say 2020 Difficulties Exposed Funding Needs

A tough 2020 for emergency call takers shows the need for more federal funding, said three local call center heads on an NG-911 Institute webinar Tuesday. Current funding is “grossly inadequate” to build facilities with sufficient technology, security and interoperability, said Orleans Parish Communication District Executive Director Tyrell Morris. “I don’t know of a single federal resource that is available today for construction of a 911 center to really meet these needs.” There are grants for technology improvements, "not the true brick and mortar we need.” New Orleans faced a disastrous spike in COVID-19 cases last year after Mardi Gras was a super-spreader event, he said. Unable to telework when the coronavirus first hit, 911 call takers were left “more vulnerable than the average person going to work,” said Renee Gordon, Alexandria, Virginia, Department of Emergency Communications director. As the virus continued to spread, Alexandria learned how to tweak existing equipment to allow remote working (see 2006120038), but many smaller centers couldn’t do that, she said. Teleworking would have helped during the 2017 shooting at a congressional baseball game in Alexandria, she said. “We had an influx of calls,” and it would have helped to allow workers not on shift to immediately take calls at home, she said. More rural network infrastructure funding would improve emergency response in Larimer County, Colorado, said Larimer Emergency Telephone Authority CEO Kimberly Culp. During summer wildfires last year, landline emergency alerts had a 60% failure rate, she said: It wasn’t due to the carrier or the alert system, but because many rural areas lack broadband and cell towers.