What is Next Generation 911 (NG911)?
Next Generation 911 (NG911) refers to an initiative aimed at modernizing and improving emergency communication systems in the United States to accommodate the evolving needs of the public and advancements in technology. NG911 is intended to replace traditional 911 systems with an Internet Protocol (IP)-based infrastructure capable of handling a wider range of communication methods, including voice calls, text messages, photos, videos, and data from Internet-connected devices.
Here are some key components and features of Next Generation 911:
IP-Based Infrastructure: NG911 systems are built on IP-based networks, allowing for the transmission of multimedia data in addition to traditional voice calls. This enables more efficient and flexible communication between emergency callers and dispatch centers.
Multimedia Communication: NG911 supports the transmission of various forms of multimedia data, including text messages, photos, videos, and telemetry data from Internet-connected devices such as smartphones, wearables, and vehicle systems. This allows callers to provide more detailed information about emergencies and enables dispatchers to better assess and respond to situations.
Geolocation and Routing: NG911 systems can accurately determine the location of emergency callers using technologies such as Global Positioning System (GPS), Wi-Fi positioning, and cellular triangulation. This enables dispatch centers to quickly route emergency calls to the appropriate response agencies based on the caller's location.
Interoperability and Data Sharing: NG911 promotes interoperability between emergency communication systems and public safety agencies at the local, state, and national levels. It enables seamless data sharing and coordination among different agencies involved in emergency response, improving the efficiency and effectiveness of emergency services.
Enhanced Call Handling and Dispatching: NG911 systems provide advanced call handling and dispatching capabilities, including real-time call prioritization, call queuing, and automatic call distribution based on predefined rules and criteria. This helps dispatch centers manage high call volumes and prioritize emergency responses based on urgency and severity.
Resilience and Redundancy: NG911 systems are designed to be highly resilient and redundant, with built-in failover mechanisms and backup systems to ensure continuous operation during emergencies or technical failures. This helps minimize downtime and ensure uninterrupted access to emergency services.
Integration with Public Safety Systems: NG911 integrates with other public safety systems and applications, such as Computer Aided Dispatch (CAD) systems, 911 call recording systems, records management systems, and incident management platforms. This allows for seamless data sharing, interoperability, and collaboration among different components of the emergency response ecosystem.
Next Generation 911 represents a significant upgrade to the traditional 911 system, providing enhanced capabilities, improved reliability, and greater flexibility to meet the evolving needs of emergency communication and response in the digital age.
How NICE Can Help?
With emergency communications becoming more complex by the day, and turnover at an all-time high, having the insight and time to focus on staff has never been more essential. That’s where NICE comes in. As the single system of record for all your data, we give you more time back in your day to engage with staff. And help you get to the truth that’s hidden in your data faster. With the ability to see everything exactly as it happened, our automated solutions for 911 audio recording and reconstruction, automated evidence production, automated 911 quality assurance and real-time performance metrics put the truth at the heart of everything you do. Whether it’s reconstructing incidents, or empowering your telecommunicators to be the best at what they do. NICE helps you get it right every time.
Taming 911 Turnover: Strategies for Success
Overstressed, overworked and underappreciated: 911 telecommunicators everywhere are reaching a breaking point. It’s no wonder average annual turnover is nearing 30% and 1 in 5 telecommunicators leave their job in the first year. With a shrinking applicant pool, it’s more important than ever to keep your current telecommunicators happy and engaged. Supportive supervision is essential, but as a 911 leader, you can’t be spending time coaching and training when you’re too busy doing other things. It’s also difficult to provide effective support when you don’t know where or how telecommunicators are struggling in the first place. View this on-demand webinar to learn about innovative solutions that 911 centers are implementing to tame rising turnover.
eBook: 5 Ways to Improve 911 Staff Performance & Retention
Running a Public Safety Answering Point isn’t easy. Problems can come at you from every direction. Take 911 turnover, for example. Your telecommunicators are the very heart of your 911 center, but the revolving door is working against you. Supportive supervision and perceived recognition are two key factors in predicting employee commitment. But as a manager, you can’t allocate time to provide individualized supportive supervision if you’re too busy doing other things. And you also can’t provide effective support if you don’t know where your telecommunicators are struggling in the first place. In this eBook we show you 5 ways to address these challenges to improve performance in your PSAP.
Digitally Transforming 911: Creating Frictionless PSAP Operations
As a 911 center leader, you’re pulled in a lot of different directions. Your time is consumed managing daily operations, and handling performance reporting, hiring, staff supervision, and even navigating different systems to reconstruct incidents to fulfill evidence requests. All of this manual work and the friction it creates in day-to-day processes can slow you down, and distract you from important things that can keep your staff motivated and engaged – like Quality Assurance, coaching, training and mentoring. In this on-demand webinar, City of Detroit CIO Art Thompson and NICE's Joe Scaffidi explain how you can free up time and resources to focus on the human side of 911, by digitally transforming manual, time-wasting tasks.