MINNESOTA STATEWIDE 911 PROGRAM
Click here for staff contact information
Department of Public Safety
445 Minnesota Street
Town Square, Suite 137
St. Paul, Minnesota 55101
Fax: 651-296-2665
NEW - Click here for the
Public Safety Answering Point (PSAP) Consolidation Guidebook
Announcements - Wireless 911
Minnesota to go high tech with 911 system
Click here to see the KSTP TV story
The Minnesota Statewide 911 Program provides technical assistance to the cities and counties implementing, maintaining, and improving 911 systems, enforces rules that set system standards, and pays the state share of 911 costs from funds collected through a monthly statewide telephone surcharge, currently 65 cents until June 30, 2009 and beginning July 1, 2009, the 911 fee increases to 75 cents. Click on the announcement at the top of this page for more information about the 911 fee increase.
The 911 emergency number is designed to provide immediate access to emergency services. 911 saves time for the caller, reduces overall response time for all emergency service providers. More time is potentially saved with enhanced 911 systems, which provide location information to the 911 center. Although enhanced 911 has been installed in the larger counties, much of rural Minnesota had been unable to afford the high start-up costs. Legislation passed in 1994 addressed that issue, providing funding to bring enhanced 911 to rural areas.
All Minnesotans have access to 911; the universal emergency number is available throughout the state, even in the few border exchanges where callers draw dial tone from an adjoining state. Initially, wireless 911 calls were generally routed to the closest Minnesota State Patrol dispatch point and 80% or more of all cellular 911 calls were reports of highway incidents. That has been changing with the growth of portable wireless phones. See Wireless Status and Legislation for the latest developments in wireless 911.
During the implementation of 911 in Minnesota, the 911 Program was part of the Department of Administration and the 911 fund paid local telephone companies to modify each telephone central office to develop 911and the program also paid the monthly recurring costs. Because local governments had to pay for the circuit and feature installation charges, and provide the Public Safety Answering Point equipment, the smaller counties, which could not afford the added costs of installing enhanced 911, settled for basic systems.
Statewide 911 coverage is provided by 87 county systems. Residents, in all 87 counties are served by enhanced 911, in one of two variations. This means that when 911 is dialed, the subscriber name and location are displayed at the 911 center. If callers do not or cannot provide their location, help could still be sent. All counties are served by selective router-based enhanced 911 systems with Automatic Number Identification (ANI), and automatically updated off-premises database Automatic Location Identification (ALI). The selective router-based enhanced 911 systems are operated by Independent Emergency Services LLC (IES), and Qwest. There are 7 IES selective routers, serving 60 counties, and 5 Qwest selective routers serving 27 counties. Having two competing 911 service providers brings the benefits of competition, but also presents the challenges of interoperability among counties served by different 911 networks and databases.
Minnesota is among the handful of states that have attained statewide 911, but enhanced 911 service is expected by the public, even in remote areas. Our legislation provides funding for the local costs of improving 911 systems, which promoted statewide enhanced 911. An enhanced 911 fund, supported by the 911 fee, is being distributed to counties and cities operating 911 systems to implement, improve, and maintain enhanced 911. Also, part of the 911 fund is occasionally used to fund grants to help counties implement enhanced 911.
The 911 program is successful due to extensive cooperation among legislators, regulators, state and local government administrators, and the telecommunications service providers. Continued success will require further cooperation to solve impending problems caused by new technology and conditions.
911 Program Efforts
During the early planning and implementation phase of the 911 Program, Department of Administration efforts were devoted to helping counties develop their 911 plans, scheduling and coordinating cut-overs, and establishing verification and payment procedures. Further in the development of statewide 911, activity shifted away from planning and implementing new systems and toward developing and administering processes for the collection of funds, service improvements, and the verification and payment of invoices. Now that legislation has provided a funding mechanism to help cover local costs, more efforts are directed to help interested counties improve their 911 systems. There is intense interest in modernizing the old systems, and county officials have expressed satisfaction, now that they can afford the high costs of adding street addresses to the county and paying the enhanced 911 installation and equipment charges.
A consistently vital function of our efforts in the 911 field has been to maintain contact with the press, Minnesota officials, and Minnesotans in general to ensure that the 911 program is understood, and that public policy decisions which will affect the operation of 911 systems are carried out with full knowledge of that effect. An example of the importance of this effort can be readily seen in the regulatory venue, where the Public Utilities Commission decided to require local exchange carriers to phase out two-party telephone service, primarily because two-party service can adversely affect proper operation of 911 systems.
Legislative Auditor Best Practices Review
The 1994 Legislature authorized the Minnesota Legislative Auditor to conduct Best Practices Reviews to identify effective and efficient service delivery. In 1998, the Best Practices Unit studied the 911 system in Minnesota. The best practices review lists many examples of Minnesota PSAPs with effective and efficient practices. Unlike traditional audits, best practices reviews highlight successes in local government services. Information regarding the review is available on the Legislative Auditor Web site at http://www.auditor.leg.state.mn.us/ped/bp/pe9806.htm
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