GREEN/LAFAYETTE COUNTIES — Imagine being able to “call” 911 in an emergency by sending a text or connecting via video or even through Snapchat or other social media.

Agencies in Wisconsin are working to make that a reality.

It’s part of a federal push to update aging communications infrastructure to digital “Next Generation 9-1-1” technology. Calling 911 in an emergency is a system that’s been around since 1968 and is historically analog rather than digital. The new NextGen 911 system is digital or Internet Protocol (IP)-based.

Across the country, 911 centers are working to upgrade their hardware and software.

The Lafayette County Sheriff’s Office is one of 24 agencies statewide receiving a sum of $2.1 million in federal grant money through the Wisconsin Department of Military Affairs Office of Emergency Communications to upgrade or replace existing “end-of-life equipment” to a NextGen 911-capable system.

Lafayette County’s share of the grant money is just under $100,000.

That covers 60% of the purchase and installation, said Lt. Theresa Burgess, who is also the county’s emergency management director. The county will cover the remaining 40% out of the 2021 budget and cover ongoing maintenance of the system.

Total cost of purchase and installation is $177,000. The new system is anticipated to be ready for use in June 2021.

Lafayette County last upgraded its 911 system in 2013, and that system is now “past end of life,” Burgess said. “We are very much in need of a new system.”

Once it’s fully operational, the new digital system will allow dispatchers to receive videos and texts and even switch over to a text-based system in the middle of a call.

It allows a person in danger or an abuse victim to “text quietly” seeking help without drawing attention to it, Burgess said. Currently dispatchers have to get creative in these situations by asking “yes or no questions” or having the distressed person “pretend like they’re ordering a pizza.”

Some agencies who upgraded their communications systems as recently as five years ago are already NextGen 911-compatible.

The Green County Sheriff’s Office 911 system has been compatible with NextGen 911 “for quite a few years now,” said Lt. Curtis Quinn. The hardware is simple: a 24-inch touchscreen computer monitor. It can be hooked up to a traditional handset telephone, but most dispatchers just wear a headset with a microphone.

Waiting for infrastructure

Texting or video-chatting 911 is still years away. Local compatibility with NextGen 911 doesn’t automatically mean full operability. In Green County, for example, dispatchers can still only accept voice calls.

One of the things that’s missing is infrastructure: fiber optic cable routes that can reliably carry data messaging for 911 centers, and a uniform system for processing that data. Telecommunications companies are working to lay fiber optic cable, which can be delicate and is costly to install.

“We’re just waiting for TDS to finish their infrastructure,” Quinn said.

At this point, he said, there’s no timeline for that.

In Lafayette County, too, “the networking has to be built out,” Burgess said. “So even if we install NextGen 911 today, we don’t have capability.”

Lafayette County must have its own NextGen 911 equipment in place by the end of May 2021 to qualify for the federal grant money, Burgess said. She said she isn’t sure the local telecom companies — Frontier and CenturyLink — will meet that deadline for the infrastructure.

“It’s a fiber issue,” she said.

Jessica Jimenez, Next Gen 911 and broadband program manager for the Wisconsin Department of Military Affairs, said the texting and video capabilities of NextGen 911 will come “down the road.”

“I don’t think we’re going to be able to process pictures and videos within five years,” she said. “Obviously we would love to get that in place sooner rather than later but the ... technology is just not there.”

First, she said, the goal is to have all 911 centers across the state receiving voice calls using NextGen 911 digital systems. 

The grant money Lafayette County is getting to upgrade its 911 system comes out of a $2.9 million funding block given to Wisconsin in 2019 by the U.S. Department of Transportation and U.S. Department of Commerce. Of this $2.9 million, $800,000 remains for future dispersal.

“The remaining money will be dispersed in future waves (after) a second round of applications,” said Andrew Beckett, public information officer for Wisconsin Emergency Management.

No state or federal mandate exists for NextGen-911, Beckett wrote in a follow-up email, “however locals are working to make the upgrades necessary to be able to interconnect their equipment with a NextGen 9-1-1 system, which we refer to as being ‘NextGen 9-1-1 capable.’ The federal grant funding is being used to assist local agencies in that upgrade process.”

New tech for 3 million 911 calls

In Wisconsin, the effort to upgrade to NextGen 911 has been happening for several years, but the history of NextGen 911 goes back even further. The National Emergency Number Association (NENA) identified the need for a “significant overhaul” of the nation’s 911 systems in 2000 and began development activities to that end in 2003.

NextGen 911 allows for interconnected systems and fast “data flow” so 911 dispatchers can “access a wide range of supportive databases and share new and more robust forms of data to facilitate call processing, emergency response and comprehensive incident management,” according to NENA.

Dispatchers answer about 3 million 911 calls in Wisconsin each year, according to a June report from the Wisconsin Operability Council’s 911 subcommittee, an advisory body created by the state legislature in 2017.

The report goes on to describe Wisconsin’s current 911 infrastructure as inadequate to meet the demands of residents and tourists and lagging behind the rest of the U.S.

Minnesota “is 10 years ahead of us,” Jimenez said. Wisconsin’s neighbor to the west was among the first states to adopt NextGen 911 technology. In late 2017, the state rolled out a Text-to-911 program.

Some of the NextGen 911 benefits the report identifies are more accurate call routing, increased access for the deaf and hard of hearing and “improved situational awareness and response” for dispatchers.

“Great strides have already been made in moving toward (NextGen 911) statewide,” the report states.

Going forward, it identifies legislative, funding, governance and training goals. By 2024, the subcommittee wants to see 100% of calls to 911 centers in Wisconsin going through a statewide NextGen 911 Emergency Services IP Network.