File photo of Juneau Capital City Fire/Rescue firefighters at work. (Michael Penn | Juneau Empire)

File photo of Juneau Capital City Fire/Rescue firefighters at work. (Michael Penn | Juneau Empire)

State pursues plan to modernize rural 911 system

The move will hopefully help public safety crisis in remote areas

The Alaska Department of Public Safety has two initiatives to consolidate and update emergency communications across the state.

“In 80% of the state, if you call 911, you’ll get routed through a bunch of trunks and end up in Fairbanks. One of our patrol detachments is bigger than the state of Texas,” said Leon Morgan, the deputy commissioner for the Alaska DPS, in a phone interview. “If we don’t know where you are, we can’t respond. We’re doing the best we can to give service to our citizens no matter where they are in the state.”

The initiatives will make it so that anyone who calls 911 in Alaska will have their location immediately identified, as long as they’re in cell service range, Morgan said. The protocol is called Enhanced 911, and is present throughout the Lower 48 and in urban centers in Alaska. However, Morgan said, rural Alaska is lagging behind.

[Coast Guard suspends search for Sitka kayaker]

“The city of Juneau has a very modern, professional emergency communication service. In our rural areas, in Southeast Alaska, we don’t have that technology,” Morgan said. “You can buy something on Amazon, but if you dial 911, we still don’t know where you are. This will change that.”

The initiatives have two main angles of attack. The first is to give all Alaska telecom providers a year’s warning on the six month notice to update and comply with the new standard. The second is to build a new Emergency Communication Center, a dispatch center for 911 calls, located in Anchorage, to consolidate and streamline dispatch centers in the surrounding areas and support the existing ECC in Fairbanks.

“We’re giving them a year advance of their six-month letter,” Morgan said. “We’re spinning up our communication centers, and two, we want to be good partners.”

Morgan said the initiatives will help the public safety crisis in the rural areas of Alaska by allowing dispatch centers to send law enforcement and public safety personnel to precisely where they need to go, spreading the updated network to the 80% percent of the state that isn’t currently covered by the new protocol.

“We live it every day. We are rural police. We feel it every day. This is a critical component in alleviating some of those rural policing problems,” Morgan said. “Giving those people in rural Alaska the same E911 coverage as the rest of the state.”

• Contact reporter Michael S. Lockett at 757-621-1197 or mlockett@juneauempire.com.

More in News

(Juneau Empire file photo)
Aurora forecast through the week of Nov. 3

These forecasts are courtesy of the University of Alaska Fairbanks’ Geophysical Institute… Continue reading

Republican U.S. House candidate Nick Begich and his supporters wave campaign signs at the corner of the Seward Highway and Northern Lights Boulevard on Nov. 4, 2024, the day before Election Day. (Yereth Rosen/Alaska Beacon)
Begich leads in early results, with Alaska’s U.S. House race too close to call

About 231,000 ballots had been counted by 11 p.m., and Peltola trailed by more than 5 percentage points

A voter is handed as ballot at Woodworth School in Dearborn, Mich., on Tuesday, Nov. 5, 2024. One of the most consequential presidential elections in the nation’s modern history is well underway, as voters flocked to churches, schools and community centers to shape the future of American democracy. (Nick Hagen/The New York Times)
Trump ‘likely to win the presidency’ as he holds advantage in key swing states

Former Republican president has 95+% chance of victory as of 9 p.m., according to NY Times forecast.

Juneau Assembly members and other visitors gather in the entrance lobby of the Michael J. Burns Building on Monday, April 8, 2024, as part of their on-site tour of potential locations for a new City Hall. (Mark Sabbatini / Juneau Empire file photo)
‘Office space shuffle’ for city workers continues with plan to buy part of Michael J. Burns Building

CBJ would purchase two floors, Permanent Fund Corp. would keep top floor under “condo” agreement.

Christopher Moore helps another Juneau homeless resident wheel her belongings from a makeshift campsite on private property near the airport on July 15. (Jasz Garrett / Juneau Empire file photo)
‘Dispersed camping’ worked better overall than homeless campground, Assembly members told

Scattered camping sites in Juneau less troublesome than fixed site last year, deputy city manager says.

Lemon Creek voters enter the Alaska Electric Light Power building as polls open at 7 a.m. on Tuesday. (Mark Sabbatini / Juneau Empire)
Juneau voters keep turning out in large numbers as Election Day arrives

“It’s bigger than I’ve ever seen here before,” longtime precinct chair at one voting location says.

(Michael Penn / Juneau Empire file photo)
Police calls for Sunday, Nov. 3, 2024

This report contains public information from law enforcement and public safety agencies.

A long line of voters waits Monday at an early voting station at the Mendenhall Mall annex. Voting locations around Juneau will be open Tuesday from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. (Laurie Craig / Juneau Empire)
Election Day in Alaska: When to expect results, and what to look for

First results should be posted online about 9:15 p.m., based on prior schedules.

Voters at Anchorage City Hall wait in line to cast their ballots on Monday, the day before Election Day. City hall, in downtown Anchorage, was one of the designated early voting sites in the state’s largest city; however, it is not an Election Day polling site. (Yereth Rosen/Alaska Beacon)
How to vote in Alaska: Options abound, but the deadline is almost here

In-person, mail, electronic and fax voting still possible on Election Day.

Most Read