PORTLAND Ore. (KPTV) -The Portland City Council is considering a pilot program designed to help shorten wait times for 9-1-1 calls.
According to Commissioner Mingus Mapps, the national standard for 9-1-1 calls is a 15-second wait time at most. In Portland, the current average is 69 seconds.
Stopgap funding legislation that is designed to prevent a federal-government shutdown this weekend includes language extending the FCC’s spectrum-auction authority into December, although the impact on potential funding for next-generation 911 (NG911) deployments remains unclear, according to media reports and Beltway sources.
The city’s director of public safety communications had a message for the Hill South community management team: in an emergency, call 911 — not the personal number of the neighborhood’s top cop.
“We did call 911,” responded Meghan Currey, who heads the neighborhood’s Wilson Library Branch. “Nobody ever answered.”
A resolution introduced at Monday night’s city council meeting proposed the city use a faster, more reliable system called Next Generation 9-1-1 (NG911), saying, in part, it will “provide faster and more reliable emergency assistance by using updated technology to provide real-time information.”
The actions of four Weld County Public Safety employees resulted in four lives saved earlier this year.
Weld County Public Safety Dispatchers Emily Schoneman, Cambrie Guerrero-Wacker and Matt Bilyeu, along with Communications Supervisor Ivett Avalos, all received Lifesaver Awards, according to a Weld County news release.
