The Jefferson County Office of Emergency Management and the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office have both installed updated digital communication systems, enabling the county’s dispatch function and local ambulatory and fire departments to pursue a federal initiative referred to as the “next generation of 911.”
The $110,658.60 grant received by the sheriff’s office in February of 2021 comes from a fund authorized by the Ensuring Needed Help Arrives Near Callers Employing 911 (ENHANCE 911) Act of 2004. The act allocated $43.5 million to assist state emergency response agencies with the implementation of internet-based 911 systems.
The grant allowed the sheriff’s department to upgrade its dispatch equipment from the traditional analog system to a digital trunking system – which Jefferson County Disaster and EMS Coordinator and Fire Warden Doug Dodge said is the most advanced technology. The grant also funded upgrades to repeater sites.
“We were excited to be able to get it,” Dodge said, adding that there is still a lot of work to be done.
The U.S. National Telecommunications and Information Administration, a branch of the Department of Commerce that advises the President on communications and information policy issues, has encouraged emergency responders nationwide to obtain the more advanced, internet-based communication systems to ensure the future success of 911.
The new digital system provides dispatch with access to the caller’s location and allows for cross-jurisdictional communication beyond the distance limit associated with the analog system. The new 911 system has not replaced the analog system, Dodge said, and the two will function together to improve access to emergency services.
With the funds for the dispatch equipment secured, Dodge applied for a Homeland Security Grant to purchase portable radios capable of interacting with the new digital system. In April 2021, the county was awarded $195,000 for the equipment.
By Fall 2021, the Sheriff’s office had installed its new dispatch system and the Office of Emergency Management had purchased enough portable radios to distribute to every county deputy as well as several each for the county’s volunteer firefighting departments, Boulder Ambulance and Jefferson Valley EMS and Rescue which the county recently received. Funding did not allow Dodge to outfit every member of the volunteer firefighter departments and ambulance services a radio, he said.
Dodge said securing both grants was an integral step to ensuring the systems’ availability on a county-wide basis.
“Trunking technology has been in place for a few years and available in Jefferson County, but the cost of implementing it has always been a struggle, especially for the volunteer agencies,” Dodge said. Trunking refers to the 911 system’s ability to transmit and receive Automatic Number Identification, such as the caller ID associated with the phone number.
A 2009 volume of the Federal Register’s Rules and Regulations explains that without automatic number and location information – pieces of information provided by landlines – emergency responses may be delayed.
The rules and regulations state that, to successfully dispatch first responders, wireless carriers, wireline telephone companies (also known as local exchange carriers), voice over internet protocol providers (such as Skype, WhatsApp and Google Voice), and 911 dispatches must work together.
Clancy Volunteer Fire Department Chief Tracy Leibbrandt explained that the digital system allows departments to communicate with each other via several statewide frequencies, which he said would improve their ability to provide mutual aid. “A lot of times we’ll work with Lewis and Clark County. Now we have some common channels in that statewide network so we can communicate,” he said.
So far, the Clancy Volunteer Fire Department has yet to use the new statewide frequencies. “We haven’t really tested it yet, but there could be times and situations where that absolutely could come in useful,” Leibbrandt said.
