Goodhue County outlines 911 dispatch operations, radio infrastructure and new mobile command vehicle

Chad Stefan, emergency services captain in the Goodhue County Sheriff’s Office, gave a detailed briefing on the county’s 911 operations, radio system and recent investments, including a mobile command and communications vehicle purchased with federal and county funds.

Stefan said Goodhue County’s public safety answering point — commonly called a PSAP or 911 center — is a 24/7 operation that answers both emergency and nonemergency calls and provides dispatching services at no charge to municipal and tribal partners. “We provide full time dispatching services to six different law enforcement agencies in Goodhue County and seven different fire departments and two ambulance services,” he said.

The presentation covered how modern location technology is improving response while exposing gaps that dispatchers must manage. Stefan described RapidSOS, a nationwide service that can show a caller’s latitude and longitude for most Apple and Google phones and updates about every 10 seconds; he illustrated the difference between older ANI/ALI (automatic number identifier / automatic location identification), wireless phase 1 and phase 2…