Emergency Communications Department - 911

The Emergency Communications Department is located at 321 West Main Street in the City of Rochester, NY. It is the municipal agency responsible for the operation, staffing and supervision of all personnel, and emergency communications between the PSAP (Public Safety Answering Point) of the Greater Rochester and Monroe County area, and all of their public safety agencies. Rochester is nestled between Syracuse and Buffalo in historic western New York. It has the unique advantage of having been developed on the shores of Lake Ontario and the Genesee River. The Erie Canal and the New York State Thruway (I-90) both pass through Monroe County bringing commerce and travelers from the East and West. Rochester, NY is the home to the corporate headquarters of the Eastman Kodak Company, Xerox; the Document Company and Bausch & Lomb, Inc., to name a few. The ECD interfaces with all eighty-four public safety agencies in Monroe County. They include all police departments, fire departments and EMS agencies, generating over 1.2 million requests for service annually.

The “vital link” referred to in our Mission Statement provides enhanced 9-1-1 (E911) services to over 735,300 residents living within the 673 square miles of Monroe County. The agency is comprised of an all-civilian staff including Telecommunicators, Public Safety Dispatchers, Shift Supervisors, Operations Managers, and a Training Division, Quality Improvement Unit, administrative staff, Deputy Director and Director. All members of this team share in the Customer Service responsibilities of the ECD. The 9-1-1 Center utilizes up-to-date computer technology to serve the public and its user agencies. From the CML Technologies touch screen telephones to PRC’s Computer Aided Dispatch system; our personnel have some of the finest equipment available at their fingertips. When a call is received on the CML phones, the call taker can transfer the Automatic Number Information/Automatic Location Information (ANI/ALI) directly to the CAD terminal by pressing a single function key. Upon entering a police event or incident, it is routed directly to the in-house police dispatch terminal. The Police dispatcher is then able to forward the event to the Mobile Data Terminals (MDT) located in every police car in the County. For a Fire/EMS incident, the event will be simultaneously sent to the Fire/EMS in-house dispatch terminal, and the Fixed Data Terminal (FDT) located at all Firehouses/EMS Stations in the County. At the same time, the Alphanumeric Paging System will activate a group page for the responding agency with all relevant information of the incident. As improvements in technology appear on the forefront, our Center is there to embrace them, and provide the best service possible. Wireless or Cellular customers are no different. The advancements we are seeing there will soon mirror those available to wired or in-home telephone customers. With the implementation of Phase 1 and Phase 2 wireless, we receive Automatic Number Indicator (ANI) and cell tower location on ninety percent of wireless calls received, and the XY coordinates from wireless or cellular signals. We have been able to locate many victims that may not be able to tell us where they are themselves. We have the capability to communicate using SMS (text) messaging from all carriers that participate. As the FCC mandates this service, more will be available.

October 2003 saw the arrival of our Sage Encoder. This allows us to act as a back-up for the National Weather Service (NWS) located in Buffalo, NY for weather alerting. Monroe County Communications (Radio Center) provides support via select radio transmitter sites across the County. The system is capable of setting off a tone via a specially purchased digital weather radio followed by a digital message display and voice transmission of a recorded message to alert the public of a weather related emergency. This acts as a supplemental method of notifying the public to radio and television.

In January of 2004, all subscriber agencies were notified of a new service available through the 9-1-1 Center. The Emergency Telephone Notification System (ETNS) is part of a national initiative. It is an interactive voice response system capable of connecting to, and delivering a prerecorded message to a large database of residential and business telephones based on the needs dictated by a wide variety of emergency circumstances. This system may only be used for Public Safety purposes in accordance with the Public Service Commission guidelines. The system is able to target specific phone customers based on municipality, a group of street numbers, police patrol beats and jurisdictions. The system has been tested tried and true during its' implementation in 2003. It was used during an ice storm in 2003 and later during a major freeway shutdown that occurred during evening rush hour in the heart of the City. Both the Sage Encoder and the ETNS will serve public safety agencies well, and allow another effective means to improve communications for the residents we are here to serve.

The agency has developed Customer Satisfaction Surveys that are used to solicit comments from the citizen callers we serve. The citizens completing them consistently rank their customer satisfaction between 3.5 and 3.9 on a four-point scale in four areas surveyed.

The Center’s Director, John M. Merklinger wrote to his staff describing their “crowning achievement” for the year 2001. Together, we achieved the distinction of being the first 9-1-1 Center in New York State to receive accreditation from the Commission for Accreditation of Law Enforcement Agencies (CALEA) as a Public Safety Communications Agency. This honor has been bestowed previously to only seven other communications centers across the United States. The ECD has also previously received Center of Excellence re-accreditation from the National Academy of Emergency Medical Dispatch of the United States of America (NAEMD) for maintaining exemplary performance in EMD as well. The ECD first received this honor in April 1998. This center is the only one to be accredited by CALEA and NAEMD worldwide.

When compiling the Annual Report for 2002, the Director referenced a communication he received, “In November 2002, Dr. Eric Davis, Medical Director for the Emergency Medical Services Council in our region detailed the impact that our team has had on the "save rate" for victims of cardiac arrest. Dr. Davis indicated that this rate has increased from approximately 7% to approximately 16%. He attributes the improvement he has seen to three things, the third of which is the CPR and AED (Automatic External Defibrillator) instructions provided by 9-1-1. This shall stand as our crowning achievement for 2002, and a hard one to top, I might add”.

In addition to being customer service oriented in its day-to-day operation, the ECD participates in the community-at-large on a regular basis as well. The ECD Public Awareness Team provides scheduled tours of the facility, classroom presentations and public seminars at Schools, Malls and local businesses. They promote the 9-1-1 Center and they educate today’s youth in what 9-1-1 is, and when it is appropriate to use it. Other employees participate in the “Take Your Child to Work” day and many regularly nominate youth 9-1-1 callers for the City of Rochester’s “Do the Right Thing” awards program. Beyond that, a vast majority of those employed by the ECD serve their hometown communities as Volunteer Firefighters, EMT’s or as Special or Auxiliary Police.

The Training Division seems to have a never-ending task. New employee training, promotional trainees and continuing education of all employees are a full time task. All classroom instructors are NYS Certified Instructors. The trainers have a variety of tools and methods at their disposal. New employees are shadowed for the first four to six months depending on job title. These seasoned employee trainers provide daily and weekly reports to management and the training division. A VOX system was specifically designed for the Center, which allows a Pathfinder monitor to be connected to each dispatch terminal. This provides a real time audio/video tape of the dispatcher’s activities on any given channel. In turn, trainer and trainee may review these tapes in a more relaxed setting and discuss strengths and weaknesses of the trainee. This also allows them to draft the action plan for the following weeks of training prior to certification of the new employee. Supervisors may utilize this equipment to evaluate performance and also review taped sessions as part of the ongoing education and training the Center provides.

Due to the nature of the business we are in, the greater need of our presence during a wide-spread emergency, and our ability to continue providing services, the Center has prepared for both natural and man-made disasters in many ways. The ECD is equipped with a series of electrical back-up systems. It receives power from two different power grids in the City and may operate from either. In the event that neither grid is capable of providing power, a 14,800 watt natural gas generator is on site. If for some reason, the generator were to fail, a shore generator capable of providing power to the facility is available to the ECD. The facility has exterior connections designed to attach to this system. All cabling; telephone and electric are provided underground and all exterior window glass is bullet resistant.

All members of the team are proud of the 9-1-1 Center we are able to work in and the services we provide to the community.