Mayor Bloomberg, along with other NY officials,   recently announced the completion of major milestones in the city’s 911 emergency call system overhaul. For the first time in city history, 911 emergency call takers and dispatchers from the NYPD, FDNY and Emergency Medical Dispatch services are located on the same floor and operating on the same technology, improving inter-agency communications and emergency response.

The upgraded, state-of-the-art system has successfully been tested to handle 50,000 calls per hour, 40 times more than average daily volume. Further, the upgraded system now provides call takers with on-screen maps of the caller’s location and the upgraded system provides critical redundancy to the city’s emergency communications infrastructure to ensure delivery of the more than 11 million 911 calls received each year.

“New York City has sought to overhaul its 911 system for decades,” said Mayor Bloomberg. “Since the system was created in the 1960’s callers to 911 had to, in effect, ask for help three different times, at three different call centers, that had no automated way to share data and work together. We now have all of the city’s emergency response agencies in one place and on the same system, with technology that can handle the large number of calls we see during big emergencies.

The changes we have made have eluded many administrations and the project has been a challenge, but we have never shied away from the tough decisions or taking on the difficult projects that make New Yorkers safer and the city work better, and we never will.”

“Responding quickly and efficiently to New Yorkers in need is our first responsibility,” said Deputy Mayor for Operations Cas Holloway. “Now that NYPD, FDNY, and EMS are under one roof, and operating on an integrated, state-of-the-art system, we will be able to fulfill that obligation faster and better than ever before. And with technology and operations support from DoITT and the Office of Citywide Emergency Communications, the 911 system will continue to evolve and improve.”

“Over the last decade, advances in technology and communications have been essential to the department’s crime fighting and emergency response,” said Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly. “This new center helps us keep New York safe.”

“The process of saving lives in New York City begins with the 911 call takers and dispatchers,” said Fire Commissioner Salvatore  Cassano. “The FDNY has never gotten to those in need more quickly than we do today, and that is due in large part to the investments made to improve and integrate the 911 system.”

The modernization of the city’s 911 system began in 2004 and has streamlined emergency call-taking and dispatch operations, helping the city’s first responders improve coordination and react faster:

After the blackout of August 2003 revealed serious operational and technical vulnerabilities in the City’s 911 system, Mayor Bloomberg convened a task force to conduct an in-depth analysis. The task force’s complete findings, which were detailed in a public report in October of 2003, reached several conclusions about the existing police, fire, and emergency medical 911 operations, including: an overall lack of efficiency and collaboration illustrated by the “silo-based manner” in which each emergency services agency managed its operations through the use of separate facilities, telephone systems and supporting technologies.

The telephone systems at three central offices and the police department’s Brooklyn call taking center lacked the ability to recover from a severe emergency such as the blackout or a service interruption; backup power resources failed; and call taking capacity was inadequate for the unprecedented call volumes during the early hours of the event.

Archaic technologies and deteriorating infrastructure led to fragmented accountability among city agencies.

The updates were designed to address these and other shortcomings in the city’s emergency public call taking and dispatch operations.

New York City first launched the 911 system in July of 1968, enabling the public to dial 911 for emergency police response for the first time ever, rather than calling the main number for the NYPD. The 911 service was expanded to include fire and emergency medical calls five years later.