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Marquette County enhances 911 services

MARQUETTE — Officials announced Wednesday at the Michigan State Police Post in Negaunee that Smart911 and emergency notification services are now offered by Marquette County Central Dispatch.

“Marquette County is pleased to announce that we’ve implemented a new system to improve 911 services and mass notification systems for all of our citizens. Smart911 is a service which will allow residents and visitors in Marquette County to provide information about themselves and their families to 911 prior to an emergency. This private and secure safety profile will display automatically to the 911 dispatcher immediately when a citizen dials 911,” said Gary Johnson, Central Dispatch manager, noting that the private data is secure and only accessible to 911 operators when a call is initiated.

Smart911 allows individuals and families to create a safety profile, entering information that they want emergency responders to know immediately, such as allergies, disabilities, phone numbers, addresses or vehicle details.

Furthermore, home and work addresses can be linked to mobile phones, allowing the specific location information to be passed on to emergency responders quickly.

All of this information can help responders to aid callers in a faster and more efficient manner.

“We receive various types of calls and the caller is frantic or it could be a small child or a situation that hinders the caller’s ability to give us accurate information. Their safety profile will, in those instances, provide the missing details that can help us determine the appropriate response,” Johnson said. “Smart911 will have a great impact on our call taking time. Today, approximately 70 percent of our incoming calls are from mobile phones and the only information that we receive on the initial call is the phone number and GPS coordinates of the caller’s location. This can make it difficult for us to quickly and accurately determine the exact location of an emergency. With a Smart911 profile, 911 dispatchers and our response agencies can receive the work and home addresses associated with the phone number, along with other information the citizens elect to share, which can be passed on to agencies in the field.”

Smart911 will also allow users to text in situations where a phone conversation is not possible.

“There also is a text feature that is with Smart911, so operators are actually able to text back and forth with a caller … if the call gets dropped, or if they’re in a situation where they’re not able to speak to an (operator) audibly,” Kevin Hatline, Michigan customer success manager of RAVE Mobile Safety, said.

Hatline explained that users will still need to call 911 to initiate the texting conversation.

“Residents aren’t able to initiate a 911 call with a text, they still have to call 911 first, but then, at that point, the 911 center can start a text conversation back and forth with them,” he said.

He also noted that people who are deaf or hard of hearing can include this information in their Smart911 profiles, allowing operators to immediately know that information and initiate a text conversation.

The mass notification system that is now available can also help responders and citizens alike in emergency situations.

“On behalf of the region 8 Upper Peninsula Homeland Security Board and Marquette County 911, we’re proud to be here today as we take a step forward in enhancing our 911 emergency response capabilities and mass notification for all residents,” said Teresa Schwalbach, Marquette County emergency management coordinator. “Citizens can also opt in to receive alerts regarding weather, road closures, shelters, evacuations and other information in the event of a disaster. These tools allow us to send the right actionable message to each individual, not just a broadcast notification.”

Local agencies that act as first responders, such as fire departments and police departments, look forward to using the new Smart911 and emergency notification systems.

“The Marquette County Sheriff’s Office and all law enforcement agencies in Marquette County are really excited to have this new feature to our 911. When you create your safety profile, you choose exactly what you want in it … there’s so many different things that you can put in your own profile that allows emergency responders to know about you and what we need to know to help. This additional information can better help us understand who may need assistance and where they’re located,” Marquette County Sheriff Greg Zyburt said.

Zyburt also noted that the users can include emergency contact information in their Smart911 profiles to let responders know who to contact in the event of an emergency such as a traffic accident or fire.

The Smart911 program will also be helpful for firefighters who are responding to a call.

“The information provided by Smart911 is going to assist local fire departments greatly, pretty much in any situation that we’re going to be responding to. For instance, knowing the apartment number of a caller in a multiple unit building is going to be very beneficial,” said Capt. Jeff Green of the Marquette City Fire Department.

The Smart911 program, which is being implemented across Michigan, will provide safety improvements for residents in Marquette County and counties across the state.

“On behalf of Marquette County I’d like to thank Gary and Teresa and everybody involved. It will provide safety improvements for the 67,000 residents of Marquette County as well as the thousands of visitors that come each year. Any time, that we (the county board) can be a part of improving things for the people of Marquette County, we certainly think its a wise investment,” Chairman Gerald Corkin of the Marquette County Board of Commissioners said.

Individuals and families are encouraged to set up their Smart911 and emergency notification profiles by visiting www.smart911.com. The profile is fully optional and can include as much, or as little information as a person or household feels comfortable providing. The system is private and secure, is used only for emergency responses, and made available to 911 operators only in the event of an emergency call.

Cecilia Brown can be reached at 906-228-2500, ext. 248.

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