Source: Union-News (Springfield, MA)
Author: DAVID GREENBERG
HAMPSHIRE COUNTY, MA – An enhanced 911 emergency service will be activated in 14 communities in Hampden and Hampshire counties next month.
With the new system, which goes into effect Nov. 30, police will be able to know the point of origin of calls to a centralized dispatch unit even if it is not revealed by the caller.
“We’re doing this as a regional partnership between local and state public safety agencies,” Maj. Donald Cody, commander of the state police’s Bureau of Technical Services, said yesterday. “It’s another tool to help people get help more quickly and more efficiently.”
Under the system, calls to the dispatch service will go through telephone company computers, which will instantly transmit the address from which the call was made and the phone service user’s name to a screen at the dispatch center.
That information will be printed out, as well.
“If you call in now and you get cut off, there’s no way of tracing it,” said Worthington Fire Chief Peter Myrick, who is elated the new system will be active soon.
New hires planned
Cody said personnel will be hired to operate the dispatch service.
Hampshire County Administrator Penny Geis said the dispatch service will also allow police officers to spend more time on the streets instead of answering phones.
Participating in the service are the Hampshire County towns of Chesterfield, Cummington, Goshen, Hatfield, Huntington, Pelham, Plainfield, Westhampton, Williamsburg and Worthington, and the Hampden County towns of Chester, Granville, Montgomery and Russell.
State Police renovated the Northampton barracks to accommodate the service, using $500,000 in state and federal grants, Cody said.
The service is a result of legislation passed in 1989 authorizing the Executive Office of Public Safety to oversee implementation of the E911 service statewide by 1995.
State police planned to construct a separate building on the Northampton barracks site to house a car maintenance garage and dispatch center. Plans also called for a temporary building to be constructed for the dispatch center to have been opened Aug. 3.
Starting date moved
When state police could not obtain funding for the permanent building, the department decided to renovate the existing facility and push the starting date for the dispatch center up to Nov. 30, which coincides with the E-911 starting date.
Martin Merrill, chairman of the Hampshire County Public Safety Municipal Advisory Committee, said the county will not be involved in the day-to-day operation of the service.
“We’ve accomplished what we wanted to do,” he said. “The object was to get the towns involved. We’re not going to oversee this.”