Action plan outlined to evaluate change to 911 system in KCMO

The Mid-America Regional Council (MARC), which coordinates the ongoing enhancement and operation of the Kansas City regional 911 and interoperable communications systems, and the leadership of the Public Safety Communications Board (PSCB) have outlined a series of actions to enable a change to the 911 system in Kansas City, Missouri. The actions are in response to this week’s request by the Kansas City, Missouri, Board of Police Commissioners to accelerate the implementation of automated call-handling functionality for 911 calls to the Kansas City, Missouri, Police Department (KCPD) and the Kansas City, Missouri, Fire Department (KCFD). 
 
The auto-attendant feature allows 911 callers to press a pre-assigned number to select among options such as police, fire, emergency medical services or non-emergency assistance prior to talking with a live call taker. The Board of Police Commissioners asked the PSCB to enable this feature in support of their goal to reduce call wait times. 
 
The action plan outlined by MARC and the PSCB leadership includes the following:

• Because of the complexity of the regional 911 system and the critical service it provides, any change to the system must involve diligent evaluation and testing. MARC will continue work already initiated to thoroughly vet the auto-attendant technology and ensure complete functionality prior to implementation. The technology is designed to support call distribution to one or more public safety answering points (PSAPs) on the same host, and modification will be required to ensure functionality for PSAPs on separate hosts (i.e., KCPD and KCFD). This testing is expected to take up to two weeks. 
• MARC will prepare an analysis and provide information regarding implementation of the auto-attendant feature for Kansas City, Missouri, at the Public Safety Communications Users Committee scheduled for 1 p.m. Wednesday, July 12. The Users Committee will make a recommendation to the PSCB regarding implementation.
• In anticipation of action by the Users Committee on July 12, a special meeting of the PSCB will take place at 9 a.m. Thursday, July 13. The only anticipated item for the agenda is to act upon any recommendation from the Users Committee regarding auto-attendant.

The PSCB is responsible for executive level policy guidance and oversight of the regional 911 system and has authority to implement changes to the system’s technology and equipment to allow the auto-attendant feature. The decision to implement auto-attendant functionality for PSAPs in Kansas City, Missouri, and any policy and administrative decisions related to how the city’s emergency call centers answer and dispatch calls will be made by the city of Kansas City, Missouri, and the Board of Police Commissioners. 
 
MARC serves as the coordinating agency for the regional 911 system under the direction of the PSCB. The system handles approximately 1.6 million emergency calls each year. Government agencies operate 40 PSAPs across the 11-county bistate region. These counties include Atchison, Johnson, Leavenworth, Linn, Miami and Wyandotte counties in Kansas and Cass, Clay, Jackson, Platte and Ray in Missouri.
 
For more information on the Public Safety Communications Board or the regional 911 system, please visit the public safety communications page on marc.org. Public meeting notices are available at the MARC calendar.