Dropped 911 Calls a Problem City Hopes to Fix Soon

Dropped 911 calls are the impetus for the Greenfield police and fire departments urgent desire to replace the city’s emergency call system.

But they are not the only reason.

After 2014, the current system will no longer be supported by the company that built it, nor will its operating system.

Police Chief Brad Wentlandt told the city’s Finance and Human Resources Committee on Wednesday the current system was purchased in 2003 and was expected to last 15-20 years. Shortly after the system was purchased, the company that built it was sold and the product was left behind.

Wentlandt added the city’s dispatchers have lost 911 calls since the beginning of this year but said a local vendor has helped with extensive troubleshooting. It was unclear at the time of publication how many calls had been dropped.

Fire Chief Jon Cohn said even one dropped call is bad. He said dispatchers are trained to ask for a callback number early in the call should they become disconnected. Resources are also sent out to 911 calls, but Cohn said now’s the time to fix the problem before it gets worse.

“We realize there have been a couple points of failures. We’ve worked those out and don’t want people to lose faith in the system,” Cohn said. “A dropped call is obviously a bad thing. It’s something you want to (fix) before the dropped call makes a difference. This is necessary and proactive before there are additional failures.”

It is expected to cost nearly $200,000 for the new system, money that has been saved for 10 years in the capital equipment replacement program.

Wentlandt told the finance committee the city might not have had to replace this system so soon if the company it was purchased from had not changed hands several times and stopped supporting it, and had the hardware and software been upgraded to become compatible with newer operating systems.

The current system, he said, is not Next Generation 911 compatible, which allows dispatchers to take calls by text message, e-mail, video, and mobile phones that can transmit video immediately. The new system will be.

The Common Council will likely approve the proposal at its meeting June 18. Cohn said, pending approval, working on getting a replacement will begin immediately.