Denco 9-1-1 tells Flower Mound council about tech upgrades, training and funding pressure

Greg Ballantyne, executive director of Denco 9‑1‑1, presented an update to the Flower Mound council on the agency’s technology, training and funding during the town’s work session.

Ballantyne said Denco, created by voters in 1987 to operate the emergency number system for the district, has focused in recent years on deploying modern tools that help telecommunicators and first responders. “Text to 911 is older, but a lot of people still aren’t aware that you can text to 911,” he said, and noted Denco’s integration with RapidSOS for medical‑alert devices and its use of location‑based routing to reduce transfers between centers.

Ballantyne said live call transcription (implemented about a year ago) and translation support—Spanish translation among them—allow telecommunicators to search transcriptions and quickly locate mentions of weapons or victim descriptions. He also described a video‑to‑911 capability in which a caller can grant permission for a telecommunicator to receive a secure video feed for evidentiary or response purposes.

Why it matters: Ballantyne said these systems shorten response time and reduce the number of call transfers, improving outcomes for people in crisis. He cited a testimonial shown in a Denco video in which a dispatcher guided bystander CPR that helped save a life.

Training and accreditation: Ballantyne said Denco is a Texas Commission on Law Enforcement (TCOLE) contract training provider and maintains CALEA accreditation for its academy, allowing it to deliver state‑recognized training and report continuing education hours. He said Denco has added an AI skills lab to simulate diverse call conditions and accents for trainee practice.

Funding concerns: Council members asked how Denco is funded. Ballantyne explained that most revenue has shifted from wireline fees (now much smaller) to a statutory wireless fee that is set by Texas law and collected and reapportioned by the Texas Comptroller. “The wireless fee is set by statute. It’s set at 50¢,” Ballantyne said, and added that wireline revenue “has been significantly less” as customers abandon traditional landlines. He said Denco received roughly $6 million in recent, one‑time grant programs from the state but warned that grant funding is not a sustainable revenue stream and that rising technology and maintenance costs make future funding a concern.

Operations and redundancy: Ballantyne described the agency’s layered redundancy—jointly owned microwave backhaul, leased MPLS lines, SD‑WAN deployment and a hardened backup center that can host partner agencies during outages. He said Denco owns and maintains the 9‑1‑1 equipment installed at the Flower Mound Police Department and performs preventive maintenance to limit service interruptions.

Local services: Ballantyne highlighted community programs such as an AED registry that lets dispatchers locate nearby automatic external defibrillators (95 registered devices in Flower Mound; nearly 1,000 across the district), indoor mapping of district schools (203 public schools, roughly 30 private schools and five universities), and outreach and training courses open to partner agencies at no cost.

What’s next: Ballantyne encouraged continued coordination with Flower Mound and flagged funding as the primary near‑term risk to sustaining and expanding these services. He said Denco will continue to seek grant support while pushing for statutory changes to stabilize revenue, though he acknowledged limited appetite in the Legislature for fee increases.