Downtown Boise (istockphotos.com)

On Nov. 19, the Idaho Emergency Communications Commission (IECC) announced grant awards for Enhanced 9-1-1 services to 14 local recipients, totaling $1,671,305.56. The recipients are Adams, Bear Lake, Benewah, Boise, Bonner, Boundary, Butte, Camas, Clark, Lewis, Owyhee, Teton and Valley counties, as well as the South Idaho Regional Communications Center in Jerome, serving Jerome, Gooding, Lincoln and Twin Falls counties.

The funding will help ensure that all 44 Idaho counties will have Enhanced 9-1-1 (E9-1-1) capabilities by the end of 2011. E9-1-1 is the ability of an emergency dispatch center to obtain a caller’s number and address when 9-1-1 is dialed from a landline telephone.

The grant funding comes from a 25-cents-per-month fee charged on all telephone numbers in 36 participating counties. The counties not participating in the program have established Enhanced 9-1- 1 capability. The fund is overseen by the IECC, which includes representatives of police chiefs, fire chiefs, emergency medical services personnel, landline telephone and wireless phone service providers and members of the public appointed by the Governor. It is charged with overseeing local 9-1-1 telephone systems throughout Idaho.

Consolidated emergency communications system centers, commonly known as dispatch centers or Public Safety Answering Points (PSAP), receive emergency calls from the public via 9-1-1 or a local seven-digit phone number. All vital public safety agencies are dispatched out of the PSAPs, whether the calls are for law enforcement, fire or emergency medical services.

The next phase of IECC grants will cover the cost of ensuring that all PSAPs can receive information from callers using a wireless or cellular telephone. An estimated 35 counties in Idaho should be served by PSAPs with those capabilities by end of 2011, and the rest should be funded in 2012.