ST. PAUL, Minn. — Text messaging is second nature for many young people, but if they need help in an emergency, they better not text the Dane County 911 Center.
Dane County’s center can’t receive text messages, though centers around the country see the need to receive text messages, video and other digital forms of communication growing in the next five to 10 years.
Recognizing the rapidly growing popularity of sending short text messages via cell phone, some states are taking steps to ensure local 911 centers are equipped to receive text messages, Internet-transmitted phone calls, video and other “next generation” forms of communication.
Wisconsin risks falling behind, according to state and national 911 experts, partly because statewide coordination of 911 centers is virtually nonexistent.
That means local governments must fend for themselves to keep up with the latest digital technology, and rely on local property taxes to pay for new 911 equipment.
“If you leave it up to the locals, more often than not, (they) are up to their eyeballs in their own local issues,” said Richard Taylor, executive director of the North Carolina 911 Board and president of the National Association of State 911 Administrators, an advocate of national standards for 911 operations. “They don’t have the time, the resources or the manpower to look at these issues.”
The situation is a repeat of what happened in the 1990s, when cell phones gained popularity.
Minnesota passed a law in 1994 to make sure 911 centers were equipped to find wireless callers who weren’t able to communicate their location. Now all dispatch centers in Minnesota have the “enhanced 911” technology.
Wisconsin didn’t pass similar legislation until 2004, and some rural counties still haven’t installed the latest technology.
Dispatch centers in Wisconsin that have cell-phone-locating technology, were able to pay for it with money collected through monthly surcharge on wireless phones.
As of July 1, the state stopped collecting the 43-cent surcharge.
That leaves Wisconsin as one of three states with no funding dedicated to maintaining enhanced 911 equipment and related costs.
With more people abandoning land lines for cell phones, it’s unusual that a state would eliminate its wireless surcharge, Taylor said.
Experts say new challenges are emerging. Twenty-one states already charge companies such as Vonage or Charter that provide Internet-based telephone service, to help pay for 911 service. Wisconsin does not. There also is no plan to pay for technology to accept text messages, video, photos, or other “next generation” modes of communication.
“I don’t think that anyone is prepared for what the next generation of 911 has to offer,” said Pam McInnis, 911 director in Eau Claire County. “As technology develops so fast, we’re going to have to purchase additional equipment. Where is that money going to come from?”
Of the $83 million collected from cell phone customers between December 2005 and June 2008, the Public Service Commission approved $34.8 million in grants to 68 counties and $52.6 million to wireless service providers to update their equipment.
With its share of those funds, the Eau Claire County 911 center added two lines to handle increased wireless call volume. County property taxpayers will now have to pay the $1,200 monthly cost to maintain those lines, in addition to other costs to keep updating the mapping system used to locate cell-phone callers.
As local governments cry out for continued state funding because they don’t want to raise local property taxes, telecommunication companies have encouraged dispatch center consolidation as the best way to save money.
“Wisconsin’s approach with (dispatch center) consolidation was the right step in keeping those costs more manageable,” said Michael McDermott, executive director of state public policy for Verizon Wireless. “When you have fewer (centers) you have more resources.”
One reason the state hasn’t done as much 911 coordination as Minnesota and other states may be the influence of the phone companies, which want less government regulation, according to Barry Orton, a telecommunications professor at UW-Madison.
“Phone companies have been extraordinarily successful in Wisconsin in making sure that the Legislature treats them the way they want to be treated on almost everything,” Orton said.
State Rep. Phil Montgomery, R-Ashwaubenon, chairman of the Assembly Energy and Utilities Committee, said telecommunication companies have no undue influence. The problem, he said, is cities and villages resisting consolidation of their dispatch centers.
Montgomery drafted Wisconsin’s 2004 “enhanced 911” surcharge law in response to what he considered an unfunded federal mandate that dispatch center’s be able to locate cell phone callers.
The money could be given to no more than one dispatch center per county, in an effort to encourage small dispatch centers for police, fire and EMS services to combine, Montgomery said.
It’s not clear to what extent dispatch centers have merged. According to the Federal Communications Commission, half of Wisconsin’s 72 counties have more than one center.
Dane County and Madison merged dispatch services 20 years ago, but there are still seven other dispatch centers in the county. Monona voted earlier this year to maintain its center and other municipalities defend the advantage of having local dispatchers who know the city better than county dispatchers.
“You’re preaching heresy when you talk consolidation,” Taylor said. “Most police chiefs and sheriffs have a kingdom attitude: ‘I’m not going to have a civilian dispatching my deputies and my officers.’ It’s amazing how much money you can save” by consolidating.
Several states, including Minnesota, have a 911 board to foster cooperation between emergency responders, telecommunications companies and government officials.
Many states also require certification of dispatchers, publish an annual 911 report, and host a Web site to educate the public. Wisconsin does none of that.
The disappearance of state money is of particular concern in Dane County, where the 911 center uses an outdated computer dispatch system.
Madison police officials have asked the 911 center to replace the system by 2010, but Dane County Executive Kathleen Falk and 911 Director Joe Norwick have proposed delaying the replacement of the system for another year because of other projects.
The lack of state coordination of life-saving 911 service has resulted in a hodgepodge of standards, practices and service levels, said Richard Tuma, director of emergency preparedness for Waukesha County. Tuma is leading an effort to rewrite the state’s 911 laws, which were written in the 1970s before 911 was in common use.
Part of the effort includes developing a surcharge that would pay for 911 needs related to land line, wireless and Internet phone users. Tuma wants the Legislature to take up the issue next year.
“We want some of the same standards for each technology, no matter what technology, so (someone calling 911) can be confident that it’s answered by a professionally trained 911 operator,” Tuma said.
Tuma praised the state’s recent effort to upgrade local systems so dispatch centers can find cell phones callers. But he cautioned that the continuing costs to maintain the new technology will fall on property taxpayers in a few years if a different revenue source isn’t created.
Montgomery agreed Wisconsin needs to look at how other states are responding to changes in 911 technology. Though he strongly opposed an effort to extend the wireless surcharge that ended in July, he said he is open to revisiting the surcharge issue, not just for cell phones, but for other technologies, after the fall legislative elections.
“We need to look at the whole picture,” Montgomery said. “The technology, the coordination and what the funds are used for.”
