Security Sales & Integration November 2021 - 8

INDUSTRY PULSE
IN DEPTH
Because most 911 systems
were
NEWS ANALYSIS RESEARCH PEOPLE
Can the Promise of NG911 Be Fulfilled?
by Rodney Bosch
originally
built using analog rather than digital
technologies, public safety answering
points (PSAPs) across the nation need to
be upgraded to an IP-based system, commonly
referred to as Next Generation
911 (NG911).
Planning for NG911 started in 2000,
with a goal to create a faster, more resilient
system that allows voice, photos, videos
and text messages to flow seamlessly
from the public to the 911 network. The
system is also intended to improve the
ability for PSAPs to help manage call
overload, natural disasters, and transferring
of 911 calls and proper jurisdictional
responses based on location tracking.
NG911 has been deployed gradually
across the country for several years; however,
a national rollout has been sluggish
to say the least, given a dearth of federal
funding, among other extenuating circumstances.
" We've
been talking about NG911
for the better part of 20 years now. It's
significant because it solves what to do
with the immense amount of data that
we're talking about today, " says Morgan
Hertel, vice president, technology and
innovation, Rapid Response Monitoring
Services. " Today we have methods for
sending things to PSAPs via numerous
different methods, including phone calls.
But none of it is really standardized, it's
all a little bit helter skelter. "
If the system can ever be widely deployed,
Hertel continues, then suddenly
much of the information the industry
struggles with how to translate and deliver
to PSAPs becomes very easy to do.
Significantly, it would also mark a change
in the way that public and private entities
work together.
" I just don't know if the country can
pull it off in the next five years. As slow as
8
Next Generation 911 (NG911) is intended to improve the ability for PSAPs to help
manage call overload, among other advances.
we've seen adoption on anything in public
service, I think they're going to struggle
to get it done unless for some reason it
gets funded federally for everybody. Even
then it is a five-year process, " Hertel adds.
Historically, 911 services have been
funded and managed almost entirely by
state and local governments. However,
most stakeholders believe that federal
funding is needed to ensure NG911 is
available nationwide. Funding is currently
under consideration as part of a standalone
Senate bill introduced in September
by Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) and
Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.).
Funding was also supposed to be earmarked
in
the $3.5 trillion spending
package being deliberated in Congress.
It's anyone's guess if the funding will survive
that sausage-making process.
" If suddenly that money is there then
it could [result] in dramatic opportunities
and probably a greater need to make
sure that we're thinking about this full
value chain going from the home to an
operator like one of us, " says Daniel Kerzner,
chief product officer, Alarm.com,
" processed, cleaned up, evaluated by the
central station and then passed on to the
Security Sales & Integration NOVEMBER 2021
PSAP in a way that can plug into those
now more sophisticated channels. "
Scott Harkins, vice president, sales and
marketing, Resideo, cautions there are
still problems for the security industry
to solve in order to optimize an eventual
rollout of NG911 technology across the
nation. " An exchange of data at a high
speed would be a really good outcome,
but we have to find a way that will do it
better with video. Video to the dispatcher
could be a really big deal. Video out to
the car providing safety to first responders
is a really big deal. "
The preponderance of false alarms, with
an extreme percentage of those signals
coming into monitoring centers that don't
require dispatch, is another issue the industry
must continue working to resolve
ahead of NG911 adoption, Harkins adds.
" It would be great to lower the volume
of data and only the really critical data get
passed very quickly and improve response
times, " he says. " That would be a really
good outcome. "
Note: Content derived from a TMA Annual
Meeting 2021 virtual panel session moderated
by Don Young, EVP and COO of ADT.
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Security Sales & Integration November 2021

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