NYC Mayor Announces Completion of 911 Overhaul

In a press conference yesterday New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg announced completion of major improvements to the city’s 911 and public safety radio systems, and said the city is now at work on a back-up facility for the communications center to ensure total reliability. “We now have all of the City’s emergency response agencies in one place and on the same system,” Bloomberg told reporters, “with state-of-the-art technology that can handle the large number of calls we see during big emergencies,” Bloomberg said. He appeared at the city’s MetroTech Center public safety answering point (PSAP) to say that 911 calls are now answered within 10 seconds 98 percent of the time, and the VESTA telephone system has been tested to handle up to 50,000 calls per hour, about 40 times the normal volume. The city began the latest upgrade project in 2004 after reviewing operations during the September 11th terrorist attacks. The back-up center in the Bronx should be completed in 2015, Bloomberg said, and will be able to fully support dispatching functions. Download (pdf) the city’s press release on the announcement, and watch a video of the press conference (click in right column).