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Chester County details 9-1-1 operations and explores accepting photos, video from callers
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Summary
At an April 8 commissioners meeting, Emergency Services Director Bill Messerschmitt said Chester County 9-1-1 answered about 1,000 calls per day in 2025 and is exploring software and policy changes to accept photos and video from callers; commissioners praised telecommunicators and approved related agenda items.
Bill Messerschmitt, director of Chester County Emergency Services, told the Board of Commissioners on April 8 that the county’s 9-1-1 center is the single public-safety answering point for the county and operates year-round with 72 full-time telecommunicators and nine management and support staff.
Messerschmitt said Chester County answered roughly 1,000 calls per day and that in 2025 the center handled more than 363,000 phone calls and dispatched about 594,000 incidents. "We operate 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year," he said, describing sections for operations, training and quality assurance that support call-taking and dispatch.
The director described the technology the center uses to locate callers and route calls, including RapidSOS location breadcrumbs and the state’s NextGen 9-1-1 phone system adopted in 2024. Messerschmitt said the county maintains 33 radio tower sites for responder communications, uses a computer-aided dispatch system to route incidents and employs LanguageLine for non-English callers.
"We're exploring the possibilities of taking video from 9-1-1 callers or receiving pictures from 9-1-1 callers," Messerschmitt said when asked by commissioners about new capabilities. He cautioned the board that the county still faces software and policy issues and that some jurisdictions, including Delaware County, already accept such content. He added that a key challenge is integrating ingested video into systems that responders in the field can access.
Commissioners and staff took time to recognize telecommunicators during the meeting. Dana Fazze, a Chester County telecommunicator who accepted the board’s proclamation recognizing Public Safety Telecommunicators Week, said, "I love helping people and talking to strangers," and described the emotional and practical demands of the job.
Messerschmitt said the county also uses a mobile command and communications vehicle to provide field dispatching and incident command at large events, and noted the county is studying technologies that could allow the center to deliver caller photos or video to responders.
The presentation was given as a departmental spotlight; commissioners asked follow-up questions about timelines and interoperability. Messerschmitt said the county is testing vendors and working through policy considerations but did not give a public timeline for when photo/video capability will be available countywide. The meeting’s consent agenda and related items were approved later in the session.
