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Sheriffs tell Senate committee Idahos 911 system rests on aging infrastructure; legislators weigh fee changes for NextGen upgrade
Summary
County sheriffs and the Idaho Association of Counties told the Senate Judiciary & Rules Committee that the state's 911 system relies on decades-old analog trunks and that failures are already endangering response. They outlined estimated costs and proposed raising the per-line fee to fund a Next Generation 911 migration.
Kelly Brasfield, policy advisor with the Idaho Association of Counties, told the Senate Judiciary & Rules Committee that county dispatch centers and the state must work together to replace legacy 911 infrastructure and move toward Next Generation 911 (NG9-1-1).
The issue matters because the committee heard multiple on-the-record accounts of calls failing to carry location data, trunks going down and calls being routed out of state, which can delay emergency response.
Brasfield said counties have operated with a $1 911 fee set in 1988 and a separate grant fee; two populous counties (Ada and Bonneville) were not participating in the grant program, reducing available funding. Sheriffs from across Idaho described specific failures and urged action.
Payette County Sheriff Andy Creech and Bonneville County Sheriff Sam Holst described recent breakdowns. Creech said a January incident in Valley County…
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