This post was contributed by a community member. The views expressed here are the author's own.

Politics & Government

E-911 Center Gets New Facility

Greg Whitaker has been re-elected to serve as President of the Georgia 9-1-1 Directors Association.

Douglas County E-911 Director Greg Whitaker says his association will work to fine-tune legislation more appropriate to the current and rapidly changing E-911 landscape. At the organization's annual meeting held in October, Whitaker was re-elected to serve as president of the Georgia 9-1-1 Directors Association for the 2011-12 term.

The association serves as the "one voice" for 911 systems statewide, which includes sheriff and fire department dispatch offices. One of its major focuses is working with members of the Georgia General Assembly to implement laws, rules and regulations related to 911 and other public safety operations. Legislation regarding parameters of authority of the Association of County Commissioners of Georgia (ACCG) in terms of accounting for the appropriation of 9-1-1 fees has been in the works over the last couple of years, Whitaker said, and will continue to be an important topic for the association on into the coming year.

"Ever since the prepaid wire fees have been collected they've been going into the General Fund budget and haven't been appropriated back to the 911 centers. One thing we've been working on . . . is some legislation in regards to giving the authority to audit and collect and [distribute] money back to the county pro rata," he said.

Find out what's happening in Douglasvillewith free, real-time updates from Patch.

In October Whitaker met with sponsors of a proposed Bill that would set new guidelines for 911 authority with regard to wire fees, but that process is in limbo, he said, and added that what may come out of that next year remains to be seen."All of that has been kind of put on hold due to the elections; no one's really sure which way anybody wants to go.

"Another current legislative topic for the association is to work with lawmakers to draw clearer guidelines on what equipment may be funded for 911 centers, Whitaker said, as more and more technology begins to play a role in public safety operations.     

Find out what's happening in Douglasvillewith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Douglas County's E-911 center will begin operating out of a new facility next year. The new center, to be located off Fairburn Road on South Cherokee Blvd., is scheduled for completion and to become operational by April 2011, and will allow for some growth, Whitaker said.

The project was funded through 9-1-1 fees, and will cost about $5 million.911 staff is currently up to 26. Typically operators work three days in a row for 12-hour shifts, per week."When I started we were doing about 48,000 calls a year, now we're doing about 125,000 calls a year," Whitaker said.The Douglas County 911 Positron Voice over IP Emergency Response (VIPER) System is an "enhanced" system; therefore, the "E" in front of the 911.

"Enhanced" means that additional equipment has been installed that displays a caller's name, address, and telephone number, an extremely important tool if the caller is unable to speak for whatever reason, including trauma or illness. Next Generation technology will be able to make use of texting and the electronic transfer of images, Whitaker said.

The E-911 Communications Center has multiple consoles including Call Taker; Supervisor; Fire Dispatch; and Police Dispatch.Whitaker became the director of the Douglas County 911 System in 1993 after working with the Douglas County Sheriff's Department in various positions for ten years. As of 2011, Whitaker has servered Douglas County for 27 years.

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here

The views expressed in this post are the author's own. Want to post on Patch?