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Committee hears metro-backed bill to fund unified 911 center awareness platform
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Summary
House File 4597 would fund development and two years of maintenance for a CAD-to-CAD unified awareness platform to let PSAPs share calls and case data in real time; metro and county officials said the platform will reduce transfers and save critical seconds in emergencies.
Vice Chair Witte presented House File 4597 to the committee, explaining the bill would appropriate funds to develop and implement a unified 911 center awareness platform that allows PSAPs to communicate directly and share computer-aided dispatch (CAD) data in real time.
Scott County Commissioner Dave Beers told the committee metro PSAPs have long recognized the need for CAD-to-CAD interoperability, citing a 2017 study and a 2023 RFP that was not awarded because of cost. He and other witnesses said the platform will especially improve response during large-scale incidents and motor-vehicle crashes by reducing call transfers and duplicative data entry.
Nancy Pass, director of the Ramsey County Emergency Communications Center, explained that Ramsey County already has point-to-point CAD links with some neighboring counties and partners but lacks connections with key partners such as the University of Minnesota Saint Paul campus, Metro Transit and the Minnesota State Patrol. She said the unified platform would allow call-takers to enter information once and send it directly to other jurisdictions, eliminating separate phone calls and delays.
Tony Martin (Hennepin County) reiterated that the platform would reduce repeated questioning and manual relays, and described it as an operational modernization that could expand statewide in time though the initial focus is metro interoperability.
Members asked technical questions about how different CAD systems would interact and whether transferred cases remain accessible to the receiving dispatcher. Nancy Pass said the system supports bidirectional updates and that cases are auto-generated on receipt so the receiving center does not need to create the case manually. HF4597 as amended was laid over for further consideration.
