The OUC uses Intergraph’s emergency response system environment for handling 911 calls. This system allows dispatchers to see emergency vehicles and the events they are responding to on a graphical map that updates automatically on computer screens. The system also involves video and voice communications systems on a broadband network.

In the late 1990s, DC’s 911 system was the worst in the country. Since then, DC has built a fully redundant E911 network infrastructure and the modernization is 90 percent complete. The National Emergency Number Association has pronounced the District’s network to be a model of how E911 services should be engineered.

Highlights of the system:

• All wireless carriers are on the “selective router” system
• Wireline carriers are in the process of being migrated onto the system
• System will accommodate Voice Over-Internet Protocol (VoIP) carriers as well

Future plans include:

• Migrating carriers/calls onto the Unified Communications Center (UCC) telephone system
• Adding increased redundancy via backup at the Public Safety Communications Center (PSCC)
• Completing the Automatic Location Identification (ALI) service 
• Determining ALI and engineering standards