Fire Rescue

E911 History

The Florida Emergency Telephone Number Act was passed in 1974, allowing counties to designate 911 as the number for citizens to call in an emergency. Passage of legislation in 1987 allowed counties to levy a fee on telephone access lines, enabling Alachua County to upgrade the existing basic 911 system to an enhanced system. Under State law, a county upgrading from basic to enhanced 911 must create a 911 Coordinator's position to oversee system development, implementation and maintenance. In August 1988, the first Alachua County 911 Coordinator was hired to begin this system upgrade.

Among other things, upgrading from basic to enhanced 911 required Coordinator oversight of:

  • Development of a Master Street Addressing Guide (MSAG)
  • Development of the Automatic Location Database (ALI)
  • A contract with BellSouth, the chosen 911 service provider
  • Procurement of new call center equipment
  • Addressing work throughout the County
  • System testing prior to deployment

Once Enhanced 911 (E-911) was in place, the Coordinator's Office became responsible for:

  • MSAG and ALI accuracy and maintenance
  • Oversight of funding and budget
  • Training of call takers in Text Telephone (TTY) operation and development of various Standard Operating Procedures (SOP)
  • Evaluation of Public Safety Access Point (PSAP) compliance with operational standards, and other state and federal mandates
  • Maintaining vendor and service provider relations
  • Equipment procurement and maintenance
  • Researching and recommending plans for system improvement
  • Interfacing with the local community on E-911 issues
  • Interfacing with the Public Service Commission
  • Disaster Planning
  • Legislative participation
  • Ongoing analysis of local addressing to ensure accuracy, resolution of addressing problems and assigning new 911 addresses.

Over the years, the E-911 Office added staff, computers and other resources. The E-911 Coordinator is now assisted by a cartographer, two computer mapping technicians and a staff assistant.

Current E-911 Office work load includes the above mentioned tasks and other on-going or short-term projects, such as:

  • The private-to-private roadway signage project
  • Update of the County Address Posting Ordinance, 911 problem resolutions and Interlocal Agreements with municipalities
  • Creation and maintenance of various system databases
  • Assisting some municipalities with address assignment and map production
  • Producing territory maps for emergency response agencies

Current workload also includes strategic planning and task completion toward computer system upgrades, including the Geographic Information System (GIS) hardware and software upgrade, and the systems that will be necessary for Communications Center Consolidation. Mandates of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) as well as technical advances in telecommunications will require new mapping and dispatch systems. Consolidation of communication systems will require the purchase of new call taking and recording systems.

While Alachua County employs the Coordinator, the position is vested by the State with responsibilities over municipal 911 centers as well. Call-taker training, equipment procurement and maintenance, performance monitoring and disaster planning are some of the areas requiring Coordinator assistance within the municipality, as well as the County.