Director Paul Nave said Wednesday that new technology is on its way to the Owensboro-Daviess County 911 Dispatch Center, including better pinpointing calls and relaying information more efficiently to help with response time.
The technology at the dispatch center is now able to pinpoint a 911 phone call within 150 meters, and at times within 3 meters due to Rapid SOS technology. To add, he and his team have been going throughout the town and geocoding different places to help strengthen the “Z coordinates,” or height off the ground.
“So we geocoded every single apartment in the city and in the county — so the Roosevelt house, all the hotels and motels — and we work with businesses geocoding that,” Nave said. “So when you call 911, it will come and hit on top of the building in the northeast corner and we’ll know what apartment it’s coming from and try to get to help.”
Nave added that the county is undergoing in a $7 million dollar project to move Davies County first response agencies to an 800 Trunk scanner, City of Owensboro agencies already use.
Nave said the quality of the service is better than their present scanner. With the County building three towers, their agencies will be able to reach the entire county clearly and without interruptions.
The school systems, which are already on 800 Trunk Scanner, will also be able to communicate with the Sheriff’s Office.
Another piece of technology coming in the near future will relay information from different branches of first responders so the person on the line won’t have to present information multiple times.
Nave said this will be beneficial for the center as during the last year they have received a rise in phone calls for medical attention. With the rise in caution, Nave said it’s likely that citizens will see fire services out more often.
He reported that last year they had roughly 300,000 calls, or about 300 to 400 calls a day to their office.
Nave said the technology now has been shifting rapidly since the turn of the century, with 80% of calls in 2000 being made from landlines to now roughly the adverse only 15% are made from landlines and what’s called VOIP services.
Nave said he sees an issue where people will not register their landline with the regional 911 and when they call the line, they aren’t able to get a hold of the local dispatch center.
