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Approve 9-1 -1
Next Monday, the county’s Board of Supervisors will consider an ordinance to establish a $2 per month surcharge on the telephone bills of county residents. The money will be used to fund the installation of a 9-1-1 emergency telephone number at the Sheriffs Department dispatch office.
We think that the ordinance is a good idea, and we urge the Board of Supervisors to approve the surcharge.
The system will not be cheap. The estimated cost, according to County Administrator John McCarthy, is about $300,000. It will involve mapping and plotting the location of each road and every home in the county, and the entry of precise directions to each house in a county-wide database which will be stored on a computer at the dispatch office.
For their money, the county’s residents will get equipment and information which may, in the future, save the life of a family member or neighbor.
The system will allow a dispatcher, when a call is received on the 9-1-1 emergency line, to know immediately the telephone number and location of the calling party. Thus, even if the caller is a child unable to give directions, or a person who becomes incapacitated after dialing the telephone, the dispatcher knows where to send the proper responding units.
The system will work the same way for law enforcement emergencies as well. Similarly, a person who requests assistance and then cannot give their location can still be found by the Sheriffs Department. And, since the origin of all incoming calls is instantly displayed on a computer screen, false alarms and prank calls can be investigated immediately.
Optional information which could be included in the database might include medical problems suffered by the residents of particular houses, the type of construction of homes and hazardous materials stored at commercial locations.
We think that, for $2 per month, the county’s residents are getting a bargain. The surcharge will be reduced, once the system is paid for, to an amount sufficient to cover the estimated $20,000 per year necessary to maintain the system hardware and update the computer database.
No price can be put on human life. But $2 each month is certainly cheap life insurance. It’s the type of insurance that everyone hopes will never be used — but when needed, it’s priceless. -
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