Vermont task force releases draft plan to strengthen statewide 911, dispatch and radio systems

The Public Safety Communications Task Force presented a draft system planning report on March 18 that identifies gaps across Vermont’s 911 call‑taking, dispatch and radio communications systems and lays out options for standards, governance, financing and phased regionalization.

The report, released for public review this month, found Vermont currently operates a fragmented network of 37 dispatch centers and six Public Safety Answering Points, two of which are run by the Vermont State Police in Westminster and Williston. The draft recommends baseline performance metrics, common operational and technical standards, CAD‑to‑CAD interoperability, and options to consolidate or otherwise regionalize dispatch centers while aligning PSAPs under a non‑law‑enforcement authority.

The report matters because the task force was created by Act 78 in 2023 to develop a reliable, secure and interoperable statewide public safety communications system that is equitably financed and universally accessible. A more cohesive system, the consultants’ draft says, would reduce opportunities for information to fall through transactional gaps when multiple dispatch centers need to coordinate emergency response for incidents inside a single jurisdiction.

Task force co‑chair Barbara Neal, executive director of the Enhanced 911 Board, told the committee the contractor team completed inventory and analysis work that included site visits to all 37 dispatch centers and produced an approximately 500‑page inventory and assessment report now under review for redactions of sensitive material. Neal said the draft system planning report presents multiple implementation options — described as “menu” items — and that the task force will accept public comment through March and consider that feedback before finalizing the plan in April.

Commissioner Jennifer Morrison of the Department of Public Safety, the task force’s other co‑chair, emphasized the task force is not driven by DPS or the 911 Board alone and that it has no predetermined outcome. Morrison said the task force has held more than 40 regular meetings and a number of special meetings, town halls and community listening sessions to gather stakeholder priorities and that consultants Televate (project management) and Mission Critical Partners (system planning) were retained to assist the effort.

Consultants identified several recurring weaknesses: lack of cohesive statewide policies and interoperability standards; operational inefficiencies; staffing and training gaps across the dispatch landscape; technological limitations and limited failover/back‑up capabilities; fragmented public safety wireless radio coverage; and cybersecurity vulnerabilities. The draft includes tiered regionalization approaches (policy/operational standardization, shared technology, and physical consolidation) and three governance models for legislators and stakeholders to consider.

On technology, the draft recommends implementing CAD‑to‑CAD functionality so computer aided dispatch systems can exchange data automatically between centers. Mission Critical Partners and task force members noted that the currently used records management product (referred to in testimony as ValCore) was not designed as a full CAD system and lacks automated run‑card/dispatch features many fire and EMS users expect. Task force members outlined multiple technical paths forward: build statewide CAD, integrate a new CAD with existing records systems, or pursue CAD‑to‑CAD interfaces.

The draft also considers land mobile radio (LMR) assets across state, municipal and county owners and recommends inventorying and exploring ways to interconnect or leverage that inventory to improve radio interoperability. Members said achieving ubiquitous cellular coverage is a separate, larger objective not currently part of the task force’s charge, though consultants and some stakeholders raised it as a related public‑safety priority.

The task force is already funded through prior legislative appropriations. Committee staff summarized an $11 million state appropriation that was set aside for regional dispatch and related work; different speakers cited varying carve‑outs during the hearing (for example, $1 million to $2 million for consulting/contracting and $4–4.5 million cited for pilot projects in different remarks). Neal told the committee the task force has authority to use a portion of the appropriation for consulting and may request pilot projects but that no pilot projects or legislative policy requests are being recommended this session.

Next steps include scheduled public listening sessions, the close of the formal public comment window, task force review of feedback with the consultants, and publication of a finalized system planning report likely in April. Neal and Morrison invited committee members to identify a legislator to follow the work and said the task force will continue developing funding and governance options that could form future legislative proposals.

Votes or formal committee actions were not recorded on March 18; the presentation was informational and the task force report remains in draft form while the task force considers public input.