‘Halley’s comet moment’: How a new 911 system could improve public safety

An upgrade to 911 systems in Ontario is setting the stage for more efficient emergency responses, in what one official calls “public safety’s Halley’s comet moment.”

The new system – called Next Generation 9-1-1 – replaces decades-old analog technology in emergency communication centres with a digital network, allowing dispatchers to get to urgent calls faster and laying the groundwork for receiving texts, photos, and videos from callers in the future.

Emergency service providers countrywide are supposed to eventually upgrade their systems under a directive by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission, and that work is well underway in parts of Ontario.

In Toronto, police said they had completed their first phase of the 911 modernization. In Peel Region and London, Ont., emergency responders started using the initial version of the system referred to as NG911 earlier this year.

“It’s going to set up more capability in the future, it gives our people better tools,” said Colin Stairs, chief information officer for the Toronto Police Service, which is responsible for the emergency dispatch of all first responders in the city.

While the public won’t see a difference in calling 911 as part of the first phase, call takers will, said Stairs. Not only does the new software make responding to calls more efficient, it also allows Toronto’s 911 call centres to all operate at the same time, making service disruptions less likely.

“Yesterday … I had to choose which call centre I was running – I had a primary and have a backup and I had a training centre. Now I can run people out of all three simultaneously,” said Stairs. “That actually really relaxes the constraints on 911 operations.”

Stairs said future phases of NG911 that allow callers to use multimedia are being prototyped.

In Peel Region, where police launched initial phases of NG911 in February, the effects of the new system have been noticeable.

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Anthony Odoardi, a deputy chief specializing in innovation and technology at the force, said the system has already improved wait times. Calling 911 in Peel a year ago would have you on hold for about three minutes, he said, but NG911 has helped get the time down to 10 seconds.

Much of that improvement comes from the new system’s ability to address 911 misuse calls through automation, said Odoardi. The technology can help manage pocket dials and misdials, and transfer non-emergency calls, freeing up dispatchers’ ability to address emergencies, he said.

“It allows the streamlining of these emergency calls directly to our call takers,” Odoardi said. “That alleviates some of the stresses, provides an opportunity for our call takers and dispatchers to gather requisite information and deliver that information on time.”

Phasing in NG911 is a big first step toward an emergency response system that is not only faster, but more reliable for those who need immediate help, Odoardi said.

“I often refer to this as public safety’s Halley’s comet moment,” he said, referencing the comet that returns close to Earth every 75 years or so.

“It’s going to be the one time in our generation that we get to implement a system that is advanced and meets the needs of our community.”

In 2017, the CRTC directed all emergency services providers in Canada to upgrade to the technology by March 2025. The country’s transition to NG911 has been years in the making, with the CRTC launching an action plan to improve 911 services in 2014.

The CRTC said it has received several requests to extend the March 2025 deadline, including from the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police, and is considering them.

“However, all 9-1-1 stakeholders must continue working to implement NG9-1-1 on the established timelines absent the CRTC modifying the deadline,” it wrote in a statement.

Douglas Johnson, an instructor at MacEwan University in Edmonton who researches public safety communications, said that NG911 is also designed to improve location accuracy. Traditional 911 systems mostly rely on nearby cell towers to provide a general location of the caller, he said, but NG911 could help pinpoint their exact co-ordinates using digital networks.

The location accuracy, along with multimedia capabilities, could help more people, said Johnson. Images and video of the scene could give dispatchers a sense of what kind of service is needed, he said, such as the number of first responders to send or whether to send police, fire or ambulance services.

“It can save more lives in the sense that if somebody’s reporting somebody that’s in medical distress and there’s a photo of it, that might give the responding paramedics a chance to have a better scene assessment or a better assessment of the patient,” Johnson explained.

Before the system can get to that stage, Stairs, of Toronto police, said infrastructure across the country must be upgraded to the new technology so that emergency communication centres can receive and respond to the additional information.

“What we don’t have right now is the uniformity across the country to say what that looks like, and how we’re going to move to that,” Stairs said.

Stairs said there are ongoing conversations within the public safety sector about what standards need to be in place to fully implement NG911, and how to effectively use it.

“When is it useful to have video of a scene and when is it just better that the person stop recording and get to safety themselves?” Stairs asked. “These are things that we need to work through.”

There are also multiple factors that need to be considered before NG911 is at its peak operational point, said Johnson.

“The technology needs to be validated, tested, stress-tested, and ensured it is doing what it’s expected to do,” Johnson said. “The processes have to be established, and how are dispatch centres going to manage the new workflow?”

Johnson noted that new training policies and mental health support systems for dispatchers managing new types of calls will need to be implemented.

“Once all those things are in place, it’s really a matter of educating the public that this new functionality is there,” Johnson said, noting that further education on when it’s appropriate to dial 911 would be needed.

“It would be a shame to have this great technology and not have the public take advantage of it.”