Iowa prepares for text, picture, video 911 messages

The state of Iowa is moving toward a new 9-1-1 system that will allow people to send text, picture and video messages to dispatchers. According to a press release from Stefanie Bond, the public information officer of the Iowa Homeland Security and Emergency Management Division, the state is in the initial stages of a project known as ?Next Generation 9-1-1? which will be Internet based.  

Iowa Homeland Security Administrator Brig. Gen. Derek Hill said in the press release that the current 911 system has been a success for 30 years. However, he also said the system has been ?stretched to its limits.?

?Many Iowans are using new wireless and Internet-based communication devices that offer text, video, and picture messaging capabilities, but unfortunately the current E-911 system was never intended to be able to handle these technologies,? said Hill.

Iowa Homeland Security awarded a five-year contract to TeleCommunication Systems, Inc., to develop the ?next generation? service. The U.S. Department of Transportation?s Highway Traffic Safety Administration and the U.S. Department of Commerce?s National Telecommunications and Information Administration are paying for nearly half of the $2.7 million project with a $1.3 million grant. The state?s wireless surcharges will pay for another $1.3 million of the tab.  

Washington County Communications Supervisor Cara Sorrells said the upgrade would dramatically change the way callers, dispatchers and law enforcement respond to emergencies. Sorrells said text messaging will be an important feature for people who are in an environment where they cannot talk, such as when a person is hiding from an intruder.

Sorrells also said text messaging will present her staff with new problems of comprehension because of the lingo and abbreviations commonly used in text messages.

She said pictures and videos taken at the scene of a crime will help police find perpetrators quickly. She said a person could take a picture of a bank robber?s getaway car and send it to the dispatch center within seconds.

?If a drunk driver hits your vehicle, he?s probably going to take off,? said Sorrells. ?What if you could take a picture or a video of him??

Sorrells said Washington County does not have the infrastructure necessary to support text and picture messaging now. Only one county in the state does, and that is Black Hawk County. Sorrells said that Iowa is on the cutting edge of 911 technology.

The E911 board has bought about $700,000 worth of 911 equipment for the dispatch center. Sorrells said that equipment will be installed at the end of September. She said it will allow the county to handle the kind of upgrades Iowa Homeland Security is proposing. She said the state is just a few years away from adopting text, picture and video 911 calls.

The press release stated that the implementation of the next generation 911 system is simply the first step in connecting local and regional emergency services to nationwide emergency services. It stated the overall goal is to improve the ability of emergency services to share information.