Stephanie Lehman, new director of Barry Central Dispatch 911, attended a recent Hastings City Council meeting to give the panel an update on the progress on the increased capabilities of the dispatch service that began in 1992.

 

NG-911

Barry Central Dispatch is about 85 percent converted to the next generation 911 phone system, replacing the copper wire system from the 1960s with digital, and shared with Calhoun and Lenawee counties. Kalamazoo and Hillsdale counties expected to join the three counties this year.

 

With technology improving, “We need to respond with technology for more user friendly and responder safety,” Lehman said.

 

NG-911 has many advantages, including the efficiencies in 911  technology, meeting changing consumer habits and expectations, increased safety for first responders with enhanced data access, and boosting the resiliency, reliability, survivability and flexibility for the system, she said.

Improvements in transferring misrouted calls, location delivery with calls, text/multimedia, data sharing across regions and back up capabilities also will come with NG-911, Lehman said.

 

SMART 911

Lehman suggested Barry County residents sign up for Smart 911, a free service of Central Dispatch. The program has  a secure, private website with a user-provided Safety Profile with information they want first responders to know; if there are handicapped in the home, the number of children, where they sleep, how many dogs and cats should be in the house, and anything else they think would help firefighters or ambulance personnel help them.

 

The profile comes up only when the Smart 911 user calls 911, is relayed to emergency personal and accessible to dispatchers for one hour before it disappears.

 

RAVE

A Rave Facility is a program similar to Smart 911, but for businesses and campuses. Information provided by users is securely stored by Rave Mobile Solutions and never sold or given to any second parties, Lehman said.

 

2017 STATISTICS

During 2017, Barry County Central Dispatch handled a total of 36,731 calls for service; 22, 360 calls for police, 1,627 for fire, 1,757 for medical first responders, 6,792 for emergency medical service and 4,195 non-emergency calls.