Emergency Communications: The Future of 911

Today's 911 system is built on an infrastructure of analog technology that does not support many of the features that most Americans expect are part of an emergency response. Efforts to splice newer, digital technologies onto this aging infrastructure have created points of failure where a call can be dropped or misdirected, sometimes with tragic consequences. Callers to 911, however, generally assume that the newer technologies they are using to place a call are matched by the same level of technology at the 911 call center. This is not the case. For example, except for some work-around solutions, Public Safety Answering Points (PSAPs)-the call centers-cannot receive text messages. Technology to supply accurate location information for wireless calls is useless unless the systems receiving and processing the call have matching capability. Modernizing the system to provide the quality of service that approaches the expectations of its users will require investments in new technologies.