I went to 911 school the last couple of days. It was overtime so during the day I was in school and at night I was working the shift. I actually got certafied for 911 about 8 years ago, but technology has sprinted along since then and there is now Enhanced 911.
Which to sum up in a phrase equals "Dayum Enforcer you sure are getting old"
- When I first got on there was not enough cell phones out there to really take them into consideration. and the ones out there didn't have GPS capabilities.
- Our 911 workstations were a big clunky boxy type space 1999 computers that had one font one size and the old greenish background.
- Mapping wasn't even given a thought
- Doccumentation was printed onto a long roll of cpu paper and stored in a box in dispatch.
- You had to physically pick a phone up off a cradle to answer the calls
- You could transfer calls to our ambulance and the fire dispatchers but beyond that you had to take down the info and call other police departments and fire on the house line and pass on the info to them.
Going through this class was kinda amazing to see the level of technology we have reached, it also was eye opening as to just how much big brother could watch if he wanted to.
When a 911 call comes in it gets routed to one of several different columns
- one is the "hard line" (regular calls from someones house wired line) it shows where the address of the caller is calling from and their phone number
- the next is the cell 1 column (cell phones with limited gps capabilities) it gives the phone number, the cell phone provider number and the closest cell phone tower
- The other is the cell 2 column which gives the callers actual location within 200 yards one way or another.
- We can transfer calls that were misdirected to us to whichever police department that they were intended with a quick click from a drop down number
- And there still is a cloud 9 button, a preprogramed message for those people who call 911 to find out if school is canceled, what time is it, or if we'd like to buy a magazine subscription.
Every call is mapped so you can see the general vicinity of where the call is originating and you can enter notes like "guns recovered from this house or whatever the case may be so that these facts will pop up if there are calls from the same location in the future.
The TTY System (911 for the deaf) has been upgraded and it is a ton easier to take these calls now.
The class was really interesting but I'm so glad its over and done with.
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