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New York State community gets increased situational awareness with new 911 call center | 03.02.2007 | 08:00:43 | Views: 5299 | ID: March 2 '07: A new E911 call center in the Town of Lockport, New York in Niagra County has given emergency management officials a leg-up in situational awareness and communications capabilities, the Lockport Union-Sun & Journal Online reported. The multi-million dollar facility allows 911 operators locate and track emergency response equipment, vehicles, manpower and increases the center's ability to handle distress calls. Increasing the situational awareness of the center, officials told the Lockport Journal that they system's virtual capacity is "unlimited .... For example, if somebody calls and wants to talk to a counselor or hotline, before, we had to physically dial the hotline and send it to them. Now we are able to punch one button. Same thing with poison control. We can send a frantic mother right to poison control." "The new system will allow dispatchers to see clusters of calls all coming from the same accident scene, perhaps eliminating the time spent answering several calls about the same thing," the Lockport Journal reported. Using call location-spotting technology, dispatchers can send information about the disaster scene to responder officials traveling in the field. Having that type of information will allow emergency personnel the ability to know what to expect even before they arrive, officials said. The new system upgrade cost close to $3 million and was a combination of local, state and federal grant and tax money.
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