Program Manager Update

No doubt, 2020 presented incredible challenges for many people, however it also allowed the opportunity to examine what really matters and reimagine the way we would do business moving forward. The 9-1-1 Program emerged as a cohesive, focused and determined unit to meet the challenges required to deliver an essential service in a flexible, resilient and fiscally responsible manner.

I am proud! Even in a remote-work environment, the team continued to deliver a stable 9-1-1 system and still find the time to complete work on a new PSAP Funding Policy, partner with the Department of Homeland Security to increase PSAP cyber security, work with T-Mobile to enhance wireless call routing capabilities, re-shape the direction of 9-1-1 Public Education by partnering with our PSAP and King County TV partners to create new education videos and release the RFP for the new, Next Generation 9-1-1 technology system. 

On the RFP front, we received a number of very strong proposals and the evaluation committee is working hard to finalize the vendor selection in the coming months. In many ways, 2020 helped crystalize the intent laid out by the Strategic Plan by clearly demonstrating the need for the network-based single platform technology system.

Finally, I would like to take the opportunity to thank both Lora Ueland and Brian Smith for their support and guidance the past two years as we continued to refine the relationship between the Program Office and the Regional Advisory Governing Board (RAGB). I believe we have developed a good rhythm and are unified in facing the challenges that lie ahead. I look forward to continuing our efforts with Kevin Lovell as he takes his position as RAGB Board chair in 2021.  We welcome him aboard.

Be kind; everyone is on their own journey.

Financial 

If nothing else, 2020 was a very busy year for the 911 Program Office finance team and there were two major accomplishments during this unusual year of transition.  First was the creation and submission of the 2021-2022 biennial budget. The team was pleased it was accepted with little to no changes. Thank you to the great partners in Performance, Strategy, and Budget and Information Technologies as they willingly supported the 911 Program team through the process.

Second major accomplishment was a year-long effort to revise the PSAP Funding Policy. This was a crucial step toward creating the long-term sustainability of the 911 Program Office fund. With an amazing team consisting of PSAP directors and financial professionals along side Program Office staff, they successfully created a new funding policy which enables greater financial flexibility and predictable forecasting for the PSAPs. This was the result of a strong partnership built on transparency, trust and collaboration and the teams look forward to continuing these efforts to build a sustainable financial outlook for the King County 911 Program and 911 community.

“Beware of little expenses; a small leak will sink a great ship.” – Benjamin Franklin

Public Education & Outreach

 Pivot to Virtual Learning

This year has been challenging for everyone, but no more so than for the Public Education and Outreach teams. It was difficult to get out into the communities when there are limitations on group gatherings. The team shifted their focus to "what can be done" and creativity kicked in.

In conjunction with King County Local Services, they attended socially distanced drive-thru events, handing out over 500 free masks and hand sanitizer. They also donated over 500 bags of educational and entertaining items to both Children’s hospital and Harborview Medical Center to be shared with sick kids and their families.

With the arrival of the Emery the Emergency Penguin mascot costume, collaboration with the local PSAPs and King County TV, an idea was born. They created three different educational videos focusing on introducing Emery, reading his stories and introducing the PSAPs that serve King County. These are currently in production for distribution on YouTube, Facebook, King County Television, and distribution to schools and community groups. 

Two upcoming videos will focus on teaching children CPR with the assistance of Sparky, King County Fire’s mascot, as well as touring a fire department facility and vehicles. The remaining videos on the schedule will be in cooperation with the King County Sheriff’s Office PSAP personnel, walking a person through calling 9-1-1 when they do not speak English as a first language. Another four videos are in the planning stage.

Links will be posted on the King County E-911 webpage - so be watching.

What a decade 2020 has been! The Technical Staff of the 911 Program has risen to the challenge. Special thanks to Steve Lagreid, Khalid Khan and Ryan Bone for their hard work and willingness to do whatever it took to ensure the PSAP community was supported! Despite a pandemic and social unrest, their work continued. They implemented new processes, found new efficiencies, implemented new ways to connect for remote support and still had to put themselves in harm’s way by conducting onsite support when necessary. All of it was done with professionalism and a collegial attitude. This team rocks!

The new management information system, "Power Metrics" was launched early in the year and continues to be refined. There is now a full year of data available and it is easy to access and a great reporting resource.

The team is participating in a long-term pilot sponsored by the Department of Homeland Security in partnership with Secure Logix to examine call patterns to detect and mitigate Telephony Denial of Service (TDoS) attacks against 9-1-1 centers. Equipment has been implemented successfully at the Test PSAP and will be deployed at Seattle Emergency Communications and NORCOM in the coming weeks.

Despite the year’s logistical challenges, the 9-1-1 system requires ongoing maintenance. Three major efforts were completed at each of the twelve PSAPs:

• Software updates to the 9-1-1 call processing equipment
• Firewalls were replaced
• Updated Map data was loaded

The Text-to-911 system will be upgraded at the larger PSAPs to improve workflow. This is a behind-the-scenes effort resulting in better service to the caller without changing the user experience.

T-Mobile approached King County to be one of the first areas in the nation to deploy their Location Based Routing for 9-1-1 calls. Typically, 9-1-1 calls are routed to a PSAP based on the cell site sector that receives the call. Due to the coverage area of cell towers and the density of local population, there are many areas where one sector serves two (or more) PSAP jurisdictions. The T-Mobile implementation occurred flawlessly in October and there has been a measurable reduction in PSAP transfers of T-Mobile callers. The teams are excited to see this industry-leading improvement and look forward to broader adoption of this technology.

A new year full of opportunities and challenges is still ahead and they are stronger and more confident as a result of surmounting the obstacles of this unprecedented year.

"Bring it on, 2021! We’re ready."