Aside from dialing 9-1-1 during an emergency, most people are not familiar with how emergency dispatch works. This often also holds true for facility security personnel. Whether a gas leak or armed employee, it is important that enterprise security personnel understand some of the technology and process behind our national emergency number and response system for their own professional purposes. With this in mind, the following should be considered.
9-1-1 calls are routed based on a caller’s location to one of approximately 6,400 public safety answering points (PSAPs). 9-1-1 calls from different facilities may go to one or more different PSAPs, even if those facilities are within the same city. Those calls are answered by professionals trained to quickly analyze the situation and dispatch the correct resources to the correct location. The 9-1-1 call-taker/dispatcher answering the call has access to all of the different responders in the area (law enforcement, fire and EMS) via radio and other communication tools. Many centers also have tracking systems that allow the dispatcher to see locations and statuses of responders in real-time.