California's 9-1-1 Emergency Dispatch System Having Funding Emergency
SACRAMENTO (KCBS) -- California's 911 emergency dispatch system had nearly $77 million dollars three years ago, now it's down to less than $11 million.
That money goes to run the 911 dispatching in most communities in the state.
It's funded through a tax on phone bills but the telecom industry is pushing lawmakers to find alternatives like money from the general tax fund.
Mark Ghillarducci is director of California's Office of Emergency Services. He says there's a new system coming on line called Next Generation 911 which should make calling from a cell phone easier.
"Faster call delivery times, including location-based reporting, and the transmission of text, videos, and photographs," Ghillarducci said.
We're all on our cell phones these days so emergency response needs to keep up. The current "legacy" system he says was built in the 80s.
The current system has over 450 dispatch locations around the state.
