National Telecommunicators Week is being observed through Friday, April 9. The Catawba County Board of Commissioners recently recognized the vital work being done by the telecommunicators at the Catawba County E-911 Communications Center. In its proclamation of National Telecommunicators Week, the Board recognized the “men and women who are engaged in the operation of emergency response systems who are responsible for responding to telephone calls from the general public for police, fire and emergency medical assistance, and for dispatching said assistance to help save the lives and property of our citizens.”

The twenty-two full time telecommunicators working in the Catawba County Communications Center, also known as the Comm Center, are called on to save lives and direct assistance to persons in danger all day, every day. Each of the county’s telecommunicators answer almost 7000 calls per year, well above the national average of about 4400 calls per telecommunicator.

Now, these men and women are able to do their vital jobs faster and more efficiently because of a new phone system recently installed in the Comm Center in Newton. The new voice over internet protocol (VoIP) phone system replaces an older system that relied partly on older analog technologies. It moves Catawba County toward what is known as Next Generation 911 or NG911.

“NG911 moves from a strictly voice based system to a data based system and will eventually allow for text messaging and the transfer of data, from sources such as OnStar, directly to emergency vehicles,” said Jerry Boggs, Catawba County’s Telecommunications Administrator. “The replacement of the current phone system with VoIP is the first step in moving to NG911.”

The new Comm Center phone system is a CML Sentinel Patriot System provided to Catawba County by Wireless Communications Inc. of Charlotte, NC. The Catawba County Board of Commissioners awarded a contract for the system to Wireless Communications Inc. in November 2007, in the amount of $293,848.97. Wireless Communications Inc. was the lowest bidder among vendors that bid systems which met County specifications.

“The new phone system moves us more fully into the ‘IP World’,” Boggs said. “With the new equipment, our telecommunicators can tell the location of someone making a 911 call before we even answer the phone. This will allow us to dispatch emergency response vehicles more quickly in many cases, and handle multiple emergencies more efficiently. For example, if a traffic accident happens on I-40 in our county, it will typically generate 35 to 40 calls from concerned motorists. If our staff sees that five calls are coming in at that same time from, say, the Rock Barn Road interchange, we can predict they may all be reporting the same incident, while another 911 call from the Lake Norman area at the same moment will show us quickly that we have another emergency to handle.”

Telecommunicators are also able to process emergency calls more quickly with the new phone system because they may transfer calls to other agencies more easily. With the old system, if a call needed to be transferred to another agency in Catawba or even in an adjacent county, telecommunicators had to press a phone for a clear line, hit a flash button and dial the number. The new system stores the numbers of other public service agencies and a transfer may be made with the click of a single button.

Telecommunicators may also build databases of the phone numbers they most frequently use, improving efficiency because all those calls may be made with the push of one button. Maps and color photographs from the most recent GIS photo flyover of the county in 2005 are now used, allowing telecommunicators to better understand the effect of buildings and topography in certain emergencies. And, as the technology of NG911 improves, it will allow telecommunicators to see on their screen where public safety vehicles are located, at a moment’s notice.

“Once the expected new technologies of NG911 are developed, we will be able to access data from Automatic Vehicle Locators, GPS devices that may be installed in public safety vehicles,” Boggs added. “We will be able to see where law enforcement and rescue vehicles are at any time so that, if we know an emergency is occurring at a given location, we will be able to see on our screens where the closest available response vehicle is at that moment.”

Boggs said NG911 will also make it easier for the Comm Center to serve more citizens in ways they find best to use.

“We are working toward a point in the near future, when more NG911 technology becomes available, where anyone on any communications system will be able to communicate with the Comm Center,” Boggs said. “A prime example is the number of people who would prefer to have the option of reporting an emergency by text message. The hearing impaired community has found that communicating by text message, through blackberry-type devices or e-mail, is more efficient than older TDD phone systems. Some of the technology that will allow for this is still being developed, but once it is developed, our new phone system will allow us to use those new technologies right away.”

Mindful of National Telecommunicators Week, Boggs said the bottom line is that the new phone system will allow his staff to better perform their vital role.

“These men and women do a great job,” he concluded. “We are saving lives and working with other agencies to get emergency calls answered as quickly as possible. The new system is helping us do this faster and more efficiently than we had been able to in the past.”

For more information on the Catawba County 911 Communications Center or the new phone system, you may contact Jerry Boggs, County Communications Center Administrator, at jerryb@catawbacountync.gov or 828-465-8330.