What happens when you call E-911?

Most people would say that your call is connected immediately with either your local fire/rescue or police dispatch. However, this often is not the case. The Maine emergency system operates on Public Service Answering Points (PSAPs) where emergency calls are routed to the appropriate dispatch. These PSAPs are usually located at one of your town’s public safety buildings. If your town has few emergency calls, a regional PSAP will rout the call to your local dispatch.

Here in the Lakes Region, the regional PSAP for Raymond, Casco and Naples is located on High Street in South Windham. This PSAP, known as Cumberland County Dispatch Center, is run by the county. Windham is also home to a second PSAP run out of the Windham Public Safety Building on Route 202 that services emergency calls for all of Windham. However, due to a statewide initiative, it may not be that way for much longer.

In the spring of 2003, the state legislature enacted amendments that affected Maine’s E-911 system. These amendments called for the reduction of the number of PSAPs in Maine from 48 to 24 in order to save the state an estimated $1 million in annual cost.

The E-911 system is funded by a $.50 surcharge on residents’ monthly phone bills. The PSAP reduction will allow the Maine Public Utilities Commission (MPUC) to maintain the low cost of this surcharge, says Albert Gervenack, Director of the Emergency Services Communication Bureau in Vassalboro. Gervenack refers to this E-911 surcharge as the “cheapest insurance policy you can have.”

Since the legislation was passed calling for the PSAP reduction, the ESCB has asked for input from the local PSAPs affected and held informal meetings to talk about “the best way to implement this law.”

In order to facilitate the PSAP reduction, certain PSAPs that receive a low number of emergency calls will be forced to consolidate with other PSAPs in their county. In the amendments to the statewide E-911 system, Emergency Services Communication Bureau listed a criterion that would direct this consolidation.

Cumberland County has been ordered to reduce the number of their PSAPs from 14 to four. Municipal PSAPs that receive fewer than 10 calls a day must consolidate with a PSAP that receives 10 or more calls a day. In addition, no more than two PSAPs may be located in one town.

These rules have made Windham Public Safety PSAP a prime target for consolidation. Because both Cumberland County and Windham have their own PSAPs in town, one of the two must consolidate with another PSAP. Windham Police Chief Lewsen has written to Maine Public Utilities Commission requesting that Windham consolidate with the Westbrook PSAP rather than the Cumberland County PSAP if necessary.

Cost is a potential factor. Under the law, the Cumberland County PSAP could charge Windham for providing the town with the emergency calls service. Chief Lewsen believes that it will be easier to share data with the Westbrook PSAP, data such as Automatic Location Information that allows the dispatch to know the address of the call. Lewsen also said teaming with Westbrook would allow Windham to have better control over its emergency calls.

The PSAP reduction and consolidation is just one of many concerns Lewsen has about Windham’s E-911 system. Another is concerning cell-phone emergency calls. All landline E-911 calls in Windham are currently received by the Windham Public Safety PSAP, but cellular phone E-911 calls are received by the Maine State Police Troop A PSAP in Gray. The Maine State Police in turn transfers the call to the Windham dispatches. It used to be difficult for the Maine State Police PSAP to then pinpoint the location of cellular E-911 calls because no receive automatic location information was received from such calls. The E-911 system has since become more sophisticated in this regard as it is now able to target the origin of the call from cellular carrier towers.

“In the beginning, we would just get a phone number and would have to rely on the information given by the caller,” says Kathy Beem, Communication Supervisor for the Department of Public Safety at the Maine State Police in Gray, “Now using the towers we are now able to narrow the area down to a longitude and latitude point if the caller has a cellphone with a GPS chip.”

Before this improvement, Chief Lewsen ran a sticker campaign to get people to dial the Windham PSAP and bypass the Gray dispatch. The police department distributed stickers that read “892-1000 for police-fire-rescue direct” for residents to put on their phones. The stickers could not however advertise this direct number to the PSAP as a E-911 emergency number because it is illegal in Maine to advertise any other number than 911 as an emergency number.

Chief Lewsen is now worried that the PSAP reduction, coupled with the cellular E-911 issue, will slow down response time.

“E-911 isn’t doing its job,” Lewsen said, “All I want to do is provide the quickest and best service to the residents of Windham and this PSAP reduction doesn’t allow us to do provide the quickest service.”

The PSAP reduction and consolidation is scheduled to be complete by October 7 this year. All requests from local dispatches in regards to the PSAP reduction are currently under review by the MPUC.

“By the end of the month, there will be a staff recommendation to the Public Utilities Commissoners,” Gervenack said. “They will then make a final decision on the rule.”

Officer Randi Lemieux waits for calls in the dispatch center of the Windham Public Safety Building. This dispatch is the public service answering point (PSAP) for emergency calls in Windham. All PSAPs in Maine are facing consolidation in order to cut costs.

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