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Lawrence County 9-1-1 director reports new technology, high call-volume performance
Summary
County 9-1-1 staff told commissioners the center handled 43,772 phone calls in 2024, adopted text and live-video capabilities, and met state response targets while pursuing further radio and mapping upgrades.
Nick, a 9-1-1 center staff member, told the Lawrence County Board of Commissioners on Feb. 25 that the county's emergency dispatch center answered 43,772 phone calls in 2024 and is rolling out several new technologies intended to speed responses and improve situational awareness.
The update matters because those changes affect response times and the information first responders receive before they arrive on scene. Nick said the center handled 22,993 9-1-1 calls, processed 587 text-message calls, and dispatched 26,550 incidents for fire, EMS and law enforcement last year.
"98% of 911 calls answered in Lawrence County were answered within 3 seconds," Nick said, noting that the center met state compliance standards. He said average call-entry time — the interval from when the call is started in the CAD system to notification of responders — was under 90 seconds. He told commissioners the dispatch team developed a fire-dispatch protocol intended to improve fire response and lower ISO insurance ratings across the county.
Nick outlined new capabilities already deployed: the center can now receive 9-1-1 texts and live video transmitted from callers' phones, and it can access health-data fields on a caller's smartphone when a 9-1-1 call is placed. "We also can now transmit live video from someone's cell phone back to the dispatch center," he said, highlighting use cases such as domestic-violence incidents or large fires. He added that health data is visible to dispatchers only during and for a few minutes after a 9-1-1 call.
He described adoption of the what3words addressing system for locations without a conventional street address and an "I am responding" app that feeds live updates to volunteer and career firefighters. Nick said the center is integrated with the National Weather Service for live event reporting and that the county is moving toward vehicle tracking and mobile data for sheriff and EMS vehicles.
Nick also told the commissioners that dispatch helped the sheriff's office obtain grant funding for data modems and a new body-camera program that he said totaled "about 300 and some thousand dollars" in grant money.
Looking ahead, Nick said the center expects a radio-console upgrade to increase channel capacity and interoperability, tower upgrades, and stricter state requirements for 9-1-1 addressing that will require coordination among county offices to reconcile inconsistent maps. He asked the board for support when those addressing changes and a possible migration of law-enforcement dispatch into the county center require interagency coordination.
Commissioners and county staff discussed public outreach; the county will issue social-media and press-material guidance explaining the new text and video features and how residents can populate health data on their phones to help emergency responders.
