What is Next Generation 911?

In this Q+A, we discuss MassGIS’ role in the Commonwealth’s Next Generation 9–1–1 system, and their goals and objectives for the next year with Senior GIS Analyst and 9–1–1 Team Lead Peter Grace.

1. What is the NextGen 9–1–1 System?

Next Generation 9–1–1 (NG9–1–1) is a national initiative with the goal of updating 9–1–1 service infrastructure nationwide. Although all states have received the same guidance in terms of standards and definitions from the National Emergency Number Association (NENA), each state differs somewhat in how they interpret them. Regardless of the interpretation, NG9–1–1 always refers to two central ideas:

1. The system is geocentric. This means that geography, particularly location, is at the core of NG9–1–1 functions including the ability to get the emergency call to the correct public safety answering point (PSAP); the PSAP is the place where they pick up the phone for an emergency call.
2. The system is an internet protocol (IP) network. A key advantage of migrating to this kind of network is the capacity of the system to send more information faster opening the door for implementations such as text or video to 9–1–1. Although these functions have yet to be implemented here in the Commonwealth, the groundwork has been laid for these options.

Lastly, the Commonwealth has chosen a comprehensive interpretation that includes almost all possible aspects of NG9–1–1. Few other states, if any, have achieved this truly ambitious goal.

2. What is MassGIS’ role in working on NextGen 9–1–1?

MassGIS provides the geographic elements, namely the streets network, address points, and emergency service boundary information that are used within the new 9–1–1 system. There are about 3.3 million address points, more than 440,000 street arcs, and over 1400 distinct emergency service zone coverage areas. These elements are used to verify the location of callers and determine which PSAP should get the call. Needless to say, maintaining this information to the standard required by 9–1–1 is quite an undertaking.

3. How does your team’s expertise help both Commonwealth employees and constituents?

I think it is rare that a database team gets the opportunity to have as direct an impact on the well-being of others as we do. The work done by MassGIS benefits Massachusetts citizens by providing comprehensive and accurate information to both emergency call takers and responders potentially, reducing the amount of time it takes for responders to arrive on scene. Additionally, MassGIS’ experience with this project will likely lead to changes in a national standard that is a core part of NG9–1–1 implementation in other jurisdictions.

4. Does your work with NextGen 9–1–1 relate to our broader tech transformation? If so, how?

The NextGen team’s work supports TSS’s “Digital” and “Project Success” core priorities. We are providing services to the State 911 Department and to dispatchers in the PSAPS that exceed their expectations and we do so on-time and on-budget.

5. What are your team’s objectives and goals for the next year?

Our primary goal is to obtain address updates from every city and town. Our primary objective is to maintain the high quality geographic products we deliver to the State 9–1–1 Department. This includes working with telephone service providers, local police and fire officials and addressing authorities throughout the Commonwealth just to name of few of the groups with which we are in contact. Although maintaining this information takes the vast majority of our time, we are always looking for ways to improve, particularly through automation. Streamlining our workflows, making it easier for municipalities to communicate with us, and automating routines are all goals.

6. Is there anything else you would like to add?

Getting to NG9–1–1 was a tremendous undertaking and the State 9–1–1 Department has quietly gone about successfully implementing an extremely complicated and technically challenging task. But, a lot of the successes have happened ‘behind the scenes’ and may be invisible to those that need to use the 9–1–1 system. I believe that the work that has been done has set the stage for greater things to come, some of which may include opportunities for GIS.