In the recently passed biennial budget, the legislature provided nearly $146 million to build out the Next Generation 911 system which will revolutionize emergency dispatching. They estimated $100 million will be covered by an additional 15-cent monthly surcharge for cell phone users and 40 cents for landlines. Cellphone users already pay a 25-cent monthly surcharge.
The user charge will largely go to counties to hook into the state’s new system, but the state gets a small share too. They budgeted around $46 million to build the new Next Generation 911 system.
Angie Canepa, deputy director of First Responder Communication Initiatives for the state Department of Administrative Services, said with the new system “geolocation is vastly improved with this IP based network technology and it also allows for text messaging and video.”
“It drastically improves 911 for location, reliability and data,” Canepa told the Journal-News. “And by that I mean they can tell what floor you’re on in a building.”
The surcharges take effect in January and the extra charge will end in October 2025. Originally she said a subcommittee of 911 experts was recommending a 64-cent surcharge but it was cut down during the legislative budget negotiating process.
She said the roll out of the program is beginning with pilot programs in 10 counties. Carroll, Columbiana, Harrison, Monroe, Morgan and Union counties have been invited to participate — not all have committed yet — and another four are still to be named.
The success and or issues in those jurisdictions will dictate how quickly the rest of the state can be hooked up to the system, but she expects implementation within the next two years. She said it’s possible Butler County could be chosen as a pilot location and in that case the upgraded system could be operational in fall of 2024.
“We want people that have all kinds of different systems so that we can make sure that it works in all scenarios no matter who is plugging in,” Canepa said. “We’re going to try to make it challenging as opposed to easy for this pilot to succeed. We want it to be tested under fire and not under everything is going swimmingly scenarios.”
Capt. Matt Franke, the county’s 911 coordinator, said they installed the infrastructure a decade ago when they moved from the copper telephone wires to the fiber IP networks, so they are ready to go.
“We improved our wireless capabilities and also prepared us for the next step,” Franke said. “We didn’t just do something that we were going to have to throw in the dumpster, what we did we’ll be able to continue to build on so we’re well positioned.”
He said another big benefit of the new technology is people will be able to send dispatchers pictures and videos — just like they can to everyone else with a cellphone — which will help first responders locate and apprehend scofflaws, respond to medical emergencies and just generally improve service to the public.
Kyle Petty, managing director of policy for the County Commissioners Association of Ohio, said they were advocating for the higher user fee, in part to ensure counties wouldn’t have to resort to tax levies to complete their projects. But he said the increased funding reserved for this effort appears sufficient.
“It’s one of those things it’s a little bit of an unknown but we were happy there was an increase anyway, which is difficult to do sometimes in this political climate,” Petty said. “We’re thankful for the increase and we’ll find out if it’s enough.”
Officials said exact funding for each county won’t be known for awhile.
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