Somerset County Communications Center

E9-1-1 Emergency Dispatching

Somerset County Communications Center receives 9-1-1 calls from ALL locations within Somerset County. If you reside or are in Somerset County and make a 9-1-1 call using a standard telephone (ie: not a cell phone or trac phone) your call will be received by the Somerset County Communications Center. The 9-1-1 Equipment is a computer, where we receive information. This computer screen gives specific information. The actual phone (Dispatch knows this equipment as the APU.) has 8 9-1-1 lines as well as 20 transfer buttons. These buttons allow us to transfer your call immediately to the agency dispatching the emergency service you require.

Now that I've said that, I'll tell you about some exceptions.

All cellular phone calls initially go to the closest Maine State Police Communications Center. They will obtain information from the caller and direct the call to the appropriate PSAP for dispatching of emergency services. This also applies to trac phones.

The other exception is based on Addressing. Each community, as many of you know, went through an addressing effort in preparation for Enhanced 9-1-1. What this did was to allow a unique address to be given to each residence. It also allowed the state to assign an ESN number to each residence. This ESN number gives certain information about that residence. Information on who your emergency service providers are for Fire, Police and Rescue. When you call in on 9-1-1, this information is provided to the dispatcher (except cellular or trac phones). It better enables them to send the correct emergency services. If addressing was not done in your community or if a mistake was made in the assignment of ESN#s your 9-1-1 call may go to another PSAP. They in turn will get information from the caller and transfer the call back to the Communications Center.

You might question why the wrong emergency service might be sent in the first place and why this needs to be done. I'll give you an example. The town of Palmyra has no fire department. Because it's population is of a size that law dictates, it has a fire chief. The fire chief has to organize fire service for residences in the town. There are four different neighboring fire departments surrounding the town of Palmyra. Because of location and proximity of the fire departments, each one is better able to serve a portion of Palmyra quicker than one of the others. Therefore, there are four fire departments that cover Palmyra for fire protection, based on a residence's location. Before Enhanced 9-1-1, the dispatcher referred to a list provided by the then fire chief, Fred Campbell, that stated based on location which fire service should be dispatched. Those fire services provided the communications center with policies for mutual aid and response. Before Fred gave us this list, the dispatchers only had a colored map to refer to when trying to determine who was dispatched.

With the addressing information that comes on the screen for Palmyra, the dispatcher doesn't have to refer to a list, the fire protection now is listed on the screen. This cuts the dispatch time drastically, providing better service to the town.

Palmyra is only one town in a county of 33 organized and 83 unorganized territories. For the dispatcher to "memorize" information on which emergency service covers each residence is an impossible expectation. This information needs to be recorded for the dispatcher to refer to when receiving a call. By addressing, your communities provided better information to the dispatcher via the 9-1-1 computer screen.

Now, as with anything computerized, there could be errors on information typed into the system through all the processes. Even with a checks an balance system, there are still mistakes. These get corrected at the time of your call.

When you call in on 9-1-1, the dispatcher must verify your name, address and telephone number for any mistakes.

When the dispatcher discovers an error with the information provided on the screen, they record the correct information in an INCORRECT ALI report. This report is then printed and faxed to Verizon. Verizon sends it to the correct Addressing Officer for the Municipality in question. That Addressing Officer reviews the information, makes any corrections and faxes it back to Verizon. Verizon corrects their database and then send us back the Incorrect ALI report stating corrections made.