Washington — A bipartisan bill that would mandate a federal compliance report on an existing law that requires new multiline phone systems to allow direct 911 calls is advancing in the House.
The House Energy and Commerce Committee’s Communications and Technology Subcommittee approved the Kari’s Law Reporting Act (H.R. 5201) without amendment during a Jan. 15 markup, advancing it to the full committee.
If you dial 9-1-1, you expect someone to answer—no matter what. That’s a promise public safety teams make to every community, and it’s a promise that technology must keep too. But as we upgrade our nation’s communication networks from legacy infrastructure to modern fiber and wireless, there’s a challenge many people don’t see: some Public Safety Answering Points (PSAPs) – the official name of 9-1-1 call centers – still rely on older systems that weren’t built for this new world.
A nearly $5 million project to expand the Perquimans-Gates 911 Communications Center has begun.
“The 911 Center floor space will be moving from approximately 500 square feet to approximately 2,000 square feet,” said Jonathan Nixon, director of Perquimans County Emergency Services.
LakeComm officials say a “hardware malfunction” is to blame for an hour-long 911 phone outage Thursday afternoon at Lake County’s newest and largest dispatch center that also likely caused Waukegan’s 911 Center to have an outage.
The Lake Consolidated Emergency Communications Center (LakeComm), located inside the Regional Operations and Communications Facility in Libertyville, began experiencing a 911 outage at around 3:40 p.m. on Thursday.
TOPEKA, Kan. — If you call 911 in Kansas and need help administering CPR there’s roughly a 50-50 chance you’ll get any instructions. That’s because dispatchers in roughly half of Kansas counties are not trained.
OSSIPEE — Between September and November 2025, more than 70 emergency dispatchers from across New Hampshire participated in a new statewide initiative to strengthen mental health response skills for 911 personnel. The full-day, in-person trainings were offered in Moultonborough (Sept. 24), Concord (Oct. 22), and Derry (Nov. 5), and were led by Forge Health’s Veterans & First Responders Program.
