National 911 Profile Database open for 2013 data collection

The National 911 Profile Database is open and accepting 911 system data for 2013 on a variety of key issues impacting public-safety answering points (PSAPs), the National 911 Program announced.

“Nearly three-quarters of the nation’s state administrators are working to collect and share state data through the 911 Profile Database,” National 911 Program Coordinator Laurie Flaherty said during an interview with IWCE’s Urgent Communications. “Real data will provide the 911 community with ammunition to make the case for the needs of 911 systems locally and nationally.” 

In cooperation with the National Association of State 911 Administrators (NASNA), the database program encourages states to voluntarily share information about a number of data points, including the number of 911 calls received, 911 fees and progress toward implementing next-generation 911 (NG-911).The data-collection process is underway, and a data-analysis report will be available by the end of the calendar year, according to the National 911 Program.

The current data collection is not the first time that the National 911 Program–housed in the Office of Emergency Medical Services at the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, which is part of the U.S. Department of Transportation–has collected information from the states.

“The Program started about four or five years ago, in connection with NASNA,” Flaherty said. “States were asked consistently how they compare with neighbors and similarly situated states in implementing NG-911.” As a result, “we started by asking the states what data elements would be useful for them to have. We then assessed which data would be feasible to collect and to develop data definitions and built an online data submission tool that the states used to submit data in 2011.

“The last time data was collected, more than half of the states submitted information and this year we are seeing even more participation.”

The data collected is broken into two groups.

“There is the descriptive demographic information—how many PSAPs are in the state, how many are primary, how many are secondary, and what are the operation costs,” Flaherty said. The second group includes data on “the implementation process and on deploying NG-911.”

While the states have said that they would find the data that the National 911 Program is collecting to be helpful, the organization has “no authority to mandate submission of the data,” said Flaherty.

As a result, when the 911 Program went to the states and collected data in 2011 “when we followed up with the states in 2012—the time that most states indicated by which they could submit the data—only about half of the states had actually submitted the data,” Flaherty said. “But when the NG-911 2011 National Progress Report combined NG-911 data with NENA’s [National Emergency Number Association’s] NG-911 data, we found that only about half a dozen states were missing.”

While the 911 Program is optimistic that more states will participate this time, it plans to follow up with states that do not participate, Flaherty said.

“Even if some states don’t participate, we feel we need to find out why,” she said.