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Sheriff warns new 911 mapping system is not usable in emergencies; requests in-person vendor meeting
Summary
The sheriff and dispatch staff told supervisors the county's new GeoComm mapping/CAD implementation is unreliable for 9-1-1 response: console access problems, incomplete road name coverage and a server outage were raised. Dispatchers requested an in-person vendor visit and urgent fixes.
Northumberland County emergency dispatch personnel told supervisors they cannot reliably use the county’s new mapping system for 9-1-1 responses and asked the board to require the vendor to meet in person to resolve the problems.
Sheriff Mark Beecham and dispatch staff described repeated operational issues with the county’s GeoComm mapping rollout. Dispatchers said they received only brief online training (about 1 hour, 20 minutes in video form) and that many newer streets, driveways and addresses are missing or mislocated in the live map, hindering rapid location of callers.
A dispatcher said the current system sometimes returns wide-radius results instead of automatically zooming to a caller’s house and that different locations in the county share identical street names (for example, a Deer Run Road in different areas), leading to dangerous misrouting on at least one medical call.
Staff reported that the system’s server had been offline since November and that recent attempts to correct problems have not fixed core usability issues on console workstations. The sheriff and staff asked county administration to require an on-site, in-person meeting with GeoComm and any integrators so that dispatchers, sheriff’s staff and county technical staff can demonstrate problems and develop an immediate remediation plan.
County officials agreed to schedule a hands-on vendor visit within a week and to provide the board with a history of the mapping project and upgrades. Supervisors emphasized the urgency: accurate, console-ready geolocation is essential for emergency response and must be fixed promptly.
What happens next: county staff will ask GeoComm for an on-site, all-staff session and return to the board with a timeline for fixes; the sheriff asked for faster escalation and clearer vendor accountability.
