[Mpls] Hennepin County take over of Minneapolis 911?

[Peter Vevang]

Hennepin County already has an extensive communications system that 
covers the whole county.  I think they had run into problems due to the 
patchwork of communitcations systems that were being used between 
various Police Departments and cities.   I saw an RFI (request for 
information) for the new Hennepin County Mobile Data communication 
system in 2002, that I assume they went ahead and installed.  I guess 
the idea was to make it so they could communicate well accross the 
county, and by extension communicate with state/national resources as 
well in the event of a natural disaster like a tornado/flood or a man 
made disaster like a 9/11 style terrorist attack or a riot.  They also 
have state of the art dispatching capability for police, including 
precise  geographical data.  All of the cities in the Hennepin County 
already interconnect into Hennepin County and the State anyway, and 
since they have added the brand new radio system, have massive data 
capacity at their phone center (which is probably better than ours and 
includes geographical tracking for cell phones through their downtown 
GIS server), it might make sense to integrate the data systems at the 
very least and consider full 911 integration.

John McClellan Wrote:
 

A huge, more subtle factor in favor of localised
dispatching is that the telecommunicators (911
operators) and especially the dispatchers have years
of experience taking calls in Minneapolis and
therefore have developed their own internal knowledge
bank of cross streets, landmarks, and other "hints"
that only someone intimitely familiar with the city
would know - and be critical in interpreting a
hysterical 911 caller.  Simple things like knowing the
importance of "North" and "South" in an address, or
"Grand Ave" vs "Grant St", or recognizing immediately
where "Old Colony" or "that big gas station on
Washington by the freeway" is.
Thats a good point too.  I don't see why we can't find a way to get the 
best of both worlds.  Perhaps area code (612) 911 operators could be 
moved to the new facility in Golden Valley or they could link up with a 
data link.

Peter Vevang
Holland
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