Downstream Call Answer Statistics

Table 11 shows the 9-1-1 calls that were answered by the three primary PSAPs, transferred to a downstream agency (secondary PSAP or another primary PSAP), and then answered by the downstream agency. Only those agencies that handled more than 100 downstreamed calls between April 1, 2009 and March 31, 2010 are shown in the table. Note that the calls shown for the Fire dispatch centres do not include MVA or first responder incidents forwarded from BC Ambulance. All of the agencies met the current NFPA 1221 standard17 of answering 95% of calls within 15 seconds.

Secondary PSAP Calls Answered Average Answer Time (Sec) % Answered in 15 Sec or less (Standard=95%) Langley Fire 1 1222 6.3 96.6% Nanaimo Police 1 1369 5.3 99.0% Non-PSAP Agency 225 5.4 96.0% Saanich Fire 1188 5.3 98.5% Saanich Fire 1 879 5.4 98.9% Saanich Police 1525 5.1 99.3% BC Ambulance 32424 4.7 99.9% Victoria Fire 1266 7.3 96.7% Victoria Police 1041 6.0 97.6% West Shore RCMP 977 4.8 99.6% Grand Total 42116 5.0 99.5%

Table 11: Calls Answered by Downstream Agencies

17

Ninety-five percent of alarms received on emergency lines shall be answered within 15 seconds, and 99 percent of alarms shall be answered within 40 seconds.

TECHNICAL MEMORANDUM CRD-1001-TM-01A

for the CRD 17 Nov 2010

by Planetworks Consulting Corp D. Mitchell, C. Thompson, D. Reid

Summary:

1) The purpose of this technical memorandum is to describe the current 9-1-1 situation in the Capital Region. This includes communications centre facilities, operations, calling statistics, costs and governance as well as voice and data communications facilities used to provide 9-1-1 services.

2) CRD managers as well as managers and staff at all the main CRD

communications centres were interviewed and each of the three 9-1-1 PSAPs was inspected.

3) 9-1-1 calling data for the 12 months ending March 31, 2010 was obtained and volumes as well as call answer and transfer times were analyzed for each PSAP. 4) Although for the most part 9-1-1 call answer performance is equal to or better than accepted standards (a few exceptions are noted within the report) the lack of an effective overall governance/decision-making structure may be an obstacle to implementing future improvements and evolution of the system towards next generation 9-1-1 technology.

Distribution: Travis Whiting, CRD

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Section

Page

1.1  Background ... 3  1.2  Purpose of this Report ... 3  1.3  Methodology ... 3  2.  CRD 9-1-1 ... 4  2.4  Overview ... 4  2.5  9-1-1 Call Processes ... 5  2.6  Victoria PSAP ... 10  2.7  Saanich PSAP ... 13  2.8  West Shore PSAP ... 16  2.9  9-1-1 Calling Statistics ... 19  2.10  Current Costs and Budgets ... 24  2.11  MoUs, Agreements and SLAs ... 24  3.  Glossary of Terms ... 26  4.  References ... 28 

Planetworks TM-01A - CRD 911 - Situation Analysis Page 3 of 28

1. Introduction

1.1 Background

This is one of three technical memos (TMs) being prepared for the CRD during the first stage of a review of 9-1-1 services in the Capital Region by Planetworks Consulting. The other TMs

describe 9-1-1 standards and developments as well as several "benchmark" systems operated by other Canadian jurisdictions. A final report will contain options for the CRD based on this work.

1.2 Purpose of this Report

The objective of this report is to describe the current 9-1-1 situation in the Capital Region. This includes communications centre facilities, operations, calling statistics, costs and governance as well as telecommunications facilities used to provide 9-1-1 and dispatch services.

1.3 Methodology

Information for this baseline assessment was obtained from on-site visits to each of the PSAP’s as well as interviews with CRD and communications centre managers and staff. Performance data for the 9-1-1 call management process was obtained from Telus.

Planetworks TM-01A - CRD 911 - Situation Analysis Page 4 of 28

2.4 Overview

Emergency communications centres in the CRD consist of four primary Public Safety Answering Points (PSAP’s) including the Department of National Defense (DND) and four secondary answering points including BC Ambulance. A PSAP is a physical location (communication centre) where 9-1-1 and other calls for service are received and routed to the proper emergency agencies (e.g., police, fire and ambulance). A primary PSAP may include both 9-1-1 call answer as well as emergency service dispatch functions while a secondary PSAP covers dispatch only. The CRD PSAPs provide two critical public safety services - taking calls, including 9-1-1 calls, and dispatching for public safety agencies, specifically police. An overview of the CRD 9-1-1 system is shown in Figure 1 below.

Figure 1: CRD 911 System

CRD PSAP responsibilities are as follows:

 The PSAP operated by the Victoria Police Department takes 9-1-1 and other calls from Victoria and Esquimalt (total population = 100,466, see Table 1 below), handles police dispatch

functions for Victoria and Esquimalt police (as a separate function from 9-1-1) and relays calls for fire and ambulance to Victoria Fire and BC Ambulance dispatch centres respectively.  The PSAP operated by the Saanich Police Department takes 9-1-1 and other calls from

Planetworks TM-01A - CRD 911 - Situation Analysis Page 5 of 28  The PSAP operated by the West Shore RCMP takes 9-1-1 and other calls from the following

areas (total population = 137,293):City of Colwood, District of Highlands, City of Langford, District of Metchosin, Town of View Royal, Songhees First Nation, Esquimalt First Nation, Central Saanich, North Saanich, Sydney, and Gulf Islands (Salt Spring, Galiano, Pender, Saturna and Mayne). The West Shore PSAP also handles police dispatch functions for the RCMP in the above areas and relays calls for fire and ambulance to the Langford Fire, Saanich Fire and BC Ambulance dispatch centres.

A breakdown of the estimated 2009 CRD population (ref [1]) by municipality and PSAP is shown in the following table:

Jurisdiction 2009 Population (CRD estimate) Victoria PSAP West Shore PSAP Saanich PSAP Saanich 113,566 113,566 Victoria 83,003 83,003 Langford 27,970 27,970 Oak Bay 18,466 18,466 Esquimalt 17,463 17,463 Central Saanich 16,597 16,597 Colwood 16,195 16,195 Sidney 11,927 11,927 North Saanich 11,427 11,427 Sooke 10,940 10,940 View Royal 9,461 9,461 Metchosin 5,043 5,043 Indian Reserves 4,806 4,806

Juan de Fuca Electoral Area 4,972 4,972

Highlands 2,092 2,092

Gulf Islands 15,863 15,863

Total 369,791 100,466 137,293 132,032

Table 1: Population

2.5 9-1-1 Call Processes

History: The CRD's first Enhanced 9-1-1 system was installed in1989 using a Positron ANI/ALI system to display the caller’s information. The ANI/ALI system was located in BCTel’s central office in Victoria. When Victoria Police moved into its new building at 850 Caledonia Street in 1996, the Positron ANI/ALI system was decommissioned and a new Meridian 9-1-1 system was installed at Victoria Police which served the CRD area. Shortly thereafter Telus introduced the Provincial 9-1-1 platform and in 1999 the CRD was transitioned to it. As described in Section 2.6 the Meridian system is still in use at the Victoria Police PSAP.

The Provincial 9-1-1 platform uses a Telus Nortel DMS 100 central office switch with special 9-1-1 software. This switch is referred to as a selective routing switch or selective router (SR) as shown in Figure 1 above. The Provincial 9-1-1 network has been built for redundancy in that there are

Planetworks TM-01A - CRD 911 - Situation Analysis Page 6 of 28 failure at the Victoria SR the 9-1-1 call would automatically be re-routed to the back-up SR and then be presented to the correct CRD PSAP.

Telus Land Line Call: A 9-1-1 call dialed from a wired telephone is recognized by Telus’s local telephone switching system which forwards the call together with the caller’s Automatic Number Identification (ANI) to the Telus DMS-100 switch located on Yates Street in Victoria. This is the Primary 9-1-1 SR Tandem for the CRD, Central Island and North Island 9-1-1 systems.

Selective Routing is the process by which 9-1-1 calls are sent to a specific PSAP based on the street address of the caller. The Selective Routing software doesn’t understand street addresses so these must be converted into numbers that the router can use. The street address ranges are associated with Emergency Service Zones (ESZ) that determine which agency is the responder for that address by service class (police, fire or ambulance).

The call is routed automatically directly to the appropriate agency based on the ESZ. Today in the Capital Regional 9-1-1 serving area there are 53 emergency service zones as shown in Table 2 below. The quantity of 9-1-1 calls by ESZ is shown in Section 2.9.1 Table 5.

Planetworks TM-01A - CRD 911 - Situation Analysis Page 7 of 28

1 Victoria 3000 Victoria Police Victoria Fire BC Ambulance

2 Esquimalt 4000 Victoria Police Saanich Fire BC Ambulance

3 Saanich 2000 Saanich Police Saanich Fire BC Ambulance

4 Oak Bay 2500 Saanich Police Saanich Fire BC Ambulance

5 North Saanich 2034 RCMP Saanich Fire BC Ambulance

6 Sidney 2053 RCMP Saanich Fire BC Ambulance

7 Central Saanich 3500 RCMP Saanich Fire BC Ambulance

8 Langford 2032 RCMP Langford Fire BC Ambulance

9 Highlands 2031 RCMP Langford Fire BC Ambulance

10 Metchosin 2033 RCMP Langford Fire BC Ambulance

11 Sooke 2035 RCMP Langford Fire BC Ambulance

12 Galiano Island 2036 RCMP Langford Fire BC Ambulance

13 Mayne Island 2037 RCMP Langford Fire BC Ambulance

14 Pender Island 2038 RCMP Langford Fire BC Ambulance

15 Salt Spring Island 2039 RCMP Langford Fire BC Ambulance

16 Saturna Island 2040 RCMP Langford Fire BC Ambulance

17 Malahat 2051 RCMP Langford Fire BC Ambulance

18 View Royal 2054 RCMP Langford Fire BC Ambulance

19 Colwood 2055 RCMP Langford Fire BC Ambulance

20 East Sooke 2117 RCMP Langford Fire BC Ambulance

21 Willis Point 2118 RCMP Langford Fire BC Ambulance

22 Juan de Fuca (Port Renfrew, Otter Point, Jordan River, Shirley)

5000 RCMP Langford Fire BC Ambulance 23 Becher Bay Reserve No. 2 2041 RCMP Langford Fire BC Ambulance

24 Esquimalt Reserve 2042 RCMP Langford Fire BC Ambulance

25 Gordon River Reserve 2043 RCMP Langford Fire BC Ambulance

26 Cole Bay Reserve 2044 RCMP Langford Fire BC Ambulance

27 Galiano Island Reserve 2045 RCMP Langford Fire BC Ambulance 28 Becher Bay Reserve No. 1 2046 RCMP Langford Fire BC Ambulance 29 New Songhees Reserve 2047 RCMP Langford Fire BC Ambulance 30 Mayne Island Reserve 2048 RCMP Langford Fire BC Ambulance 31 East Saanich Reserve 2049 RCMP Saanich Fire BC Ambulance

32 Union Bay Reserve 2050 RCMP Langford Fire BC Ambulance

33 Sooke Reserve No. 1 2052 RCMP Langford Fire BC Ambulance 34 Bare Island First Nation Reserve 2101 RCMP Langford Fire BC Ambulance 35 Fraser Island Reserve 2102 RCMP Langford Fire BC Ambulance 36 Fulford Harbour Reserve 2103 RCMP Langford Fire BC Ambulance

37 Goldstream Reserve 2104 RCMP Langford Fire BC Ambulance

38 Lamb Island Reserve 2105 RCMP Langford Fire BC Ambulance 39 Long Neck Island Reserve 2106 RCMP Langford Fire BC Ambulance

40 Pachena Reserve 2107 RCMP Langford Fire BC Ambulance

41 Pender Island Reserve 2108 RCMP Langford Fire BC Ambulance 42 Queesidaquah Reserve 2109 RCMP Langford Fire BC Ambulance 43 Senanus Island Reserve 2110 RCMP Langford Fire BC Ambulance 44 Twin Island Reserve 2111 RCMP Langford Fire BC Ambulance 45 Village Islands Reserve 2112 RCMP Langford Fire BC Ambulance 46 Whale Island Reserve 2113 RCMP Langford Fire BC Ambulance 47 Chatham Islands Reserve 2114 RCMP Langford Fire BC Ambulance 48 Deadman's Halkett Island Reserve 2115 RCMP Langford Fire BC Ambulance 49 Discovery Island Reserve 2116 RCMP Langford Fire BC Ambulance 50 Haro Strait Island Trust Area 2119 RCMP Langford Fire BC Ambulance 51 South Saanich Reserve 2120 RCMP Saanich Fire BC Ambulance 52 Saturna Island Reserve 2121 RCMP Langford Fire BC Ambulance 53 Sooke Reserve No. 2 2122 RCMP Langford Fire BC Ambulance

Planetworks TM-01A - CRD 911 - Situation Analysis Page 8 of 28 retrieve location (ALI) information related to the number that generated the call. There are two ALI computer systems used by PSAPs in the CRD. One is located in Burnaby, BC and its backup is in Alberta. The ALI database is updated every night from Telus’s billing system for the latest

telephone listings.

When the voice call is delivered to the 9-1-1 PSAP’s Private Branch Exchange (PBX) system, additional information is required from the PBX terminal equipment to support the ALI feature. This additional information includes the line number of the facility connecting the PBX to the Selective Router and the position number of the telephone set used by the call taker to answer the call. This information is to be sent immediately on answer of the 9-1-1 line and is then combined with the data record from the Selective Router to enable the ALI Computer System to populate the CAD Packet Position field (answering agent’s position number at the PSAP). The CAD Packet is then sent to the CAD system to display the 9-1-1 caller’s information on the correct 9-1-1 call taker’s CAD screen.

Cellular Call: When a local cell phone caller dials 9-1-1, the call is picked up by a cellular tower and sent to the cellular company's Mobile Switching Centre (MSC). The MSC recognizes the call as 9-1-1 and forwards it to the Victoria Primary 9-1-1 Tandem switch (Selective Router) described above. The Selective Routing software is required to transfer 9-1-1 cellular callers to the closest PSAP.

The Selective Router in Victoria uses the number supplied by the MSC as a key, and checks a specialized Selective Routing Database (SRDB) for routing instructions. The 9-1-1 call is then forwarded to a predetermined PSAP for voice connection. In this case the City of Victoria cellular customer is answered at the City of Victoria Police Department PSAP located at 850 Caledonia Street, Victoria. The call taker, realizing this is a cellular call, must interrogate the caller to

determine where they are located. Also, the ALI computer on initial answer sends the caller’s call back number, address of the cell tower site and which cellular company routed the call to the call taker’s CAD display screen. Several seconds later the ALI computer will send a second CAD packet to the CAD system and the display screen will redisplay with the Longitude, Latitude and Uncertainty factor in meters for the caller. (See reference [2] for a full description of these Wireless Phase II impacts).

CLEC Land Line Call: Competition in local telephone service was approved in Canada in 1997. The CRTC specifies that Competitive Local Exchange Carriers (CLECs) must provide 9-1-1 service and must also send end-customer information to the 9-1-1 ALI database via an interface provided by the Incumbent Local Exchange Carrier (ILEC). Only the CLEC can alter its end- customer records.

When an end-customer decides to move from the ILEC to a CLEC for service, a service order is issued from the CLEC to the ILEC and a date is assigned for the change. On that date a

telephone installer will remove the service from the ILEC's central office switch and re-terminate it on the CLEC's entrance facilities. Entrance facilities are the connections between a CLEC-

designated location (Point of Presence or POP) and the ILEC's central office serving that location. The end-customer will then be receiving local service dial tone from the CLEC. As part of the CRTC's ruling the CLEC must then create an ALI record that contains the end-customer's name, address and service provider information. The CLEC, through a Service Agreement, has direct access to the ILEC's ALI database. Normally during the night the CLEC's record system will send a data file containing the end-customer information to the ILEC's ALI computer.

A 9-1-1 call dialed by a CLEC customer routes in the same way as a Telus customer as shown in Figure 2 below.

Planetworks TM-01A - CRD 911 - Situation Analysis Page 9 of 28 Figure 2: CLEC Routing

Shaw Subscribers: As with other CLECs, when an end-customer decides to move from Telus to Shaw’s VoIP service for local service a service order is issued from Shaw to Telus, a date is assigned for the change and ALI records are supplied by Shaw to the Telus database as described above. However, unlike the land line CLECs, Shaw and other cable TV companies have their own network cable facilities that connect directly to the end-customer's home. Other VoIP Subscribers: When an end-customer decides to move from Telus to a non-fixed VoIP service provider such as Vonage or Primus for local service a service order is issued from the VoIP provider to Telus and a date is assigned for the change. Unlike with Shaw and the land line CLECs there are many issues with using this service for 9-1-1 as described in TM-02A section 2.4 (see Reference [2]). The CRTC has mandated that 9-1-1 calls originating from VoIP users must have their location verified by a certified emergency service operator.

As an example, when a Victoria end-customer using the Vonage service dials 9-1-1 the call is routed to a call centre operated by Northern911, a third party answering service, located in Sudbury, Ontario. The Northern911 operator will download the initial customer location

information provided by Vonage and then verify the physical location of the emergency with the caller prior to dispatching the appropriate emergency service provider.

Because the third party operators do not have direct access to the individual 9-1-1 networks across Canada they must look up the ten digit non-emergency number for the correct PSAP, call the PSAP and then conference in the 9-1-1 caller. This procedure has the following drawbacks and risks:

 It takes longer to process the 9-1-1 call;

Planetworks TM-01A - CRD 911 - Situation Analysis Page 10 of 28  the third party answer service may not have the correct PSAP number;

 the call may be transferred to the wrong PSAP  the caller may not know where they are

The CRTC has not made significant progress1 in improving this procedure for handling 9-1-1 calls from nomadic VoIP users.

2.6 Victoria PSAP

The City of Victoria’s Communications Centre is located at 850 Caledonia Street, and is an intrinsic part of the Victoria Police Department. This centre is a Primary PSAP which means that it receives the initial 9-1-1 call for service in the city for police, fire and emergency medical service (ambulance) response areas and directly dispatches Victoria Police and Esquimalt Police services as shown in Figure 3 below.

Figure 3: Victoria PSAP

The Communications Centre has the capability of staffing 8 call taker positions, 3 dispatch positions, 1 administration switchboard position and a Supervisory office. The Computer Aided Dispatch (CAD) screens are connected to the network-based provincial Prime-BC system with the main processor housed in Vancouver. This has the advantage of allowing a call taker from Saanich Police or West Shore RCMP to come to the centre and handle calls seamlessly in a backup situation.

A disadvantage is that when the main computer in Vancouver has a problem the Communications Centre loses the ability to see the 9-1-1 caller’s information on the screen and the capability to electronically store the information.

The dispatchers are cross-trained for call taking and radio dispatching.

The CAD software product was purchased from Versaterm and is administered by BC

PRIMECorp - Police Records Information Management Environment. This vendor also supplies the police Records Management System (RMS).

The Telus SR has seven specialized trunks that are connected to a Meridian 1 Option 61 PBX located at the centre which was installed in 1996.

1

Planetworks TM-01A - CRD 911 - Situation Analysis Page 11 of 28 Telephone interface which allows the dispatcher to continue to use the headset and easily switch between the two systems.

Figure 4 9-1-1 Position - Victoria PSAP

On the M3905 phones all seven of the 9-1-1 lines appear on the telephone and if the first 9-1-1 line is busy the second call will come in on the second line until all lines are busy. The eighth caller will receive busy tone from the central office if all seven lines are in use at the PSAP. Telus's technician has indicated that the centre has access to individual outgoing trunks on copper wire separate from the PRI trunks used by Administration telephones in the case of a failure of the PRI fiber link.

Victoria Police have installed a Key Set Interface (KSI) to monitor the progress of incoming 9-1-1 calls. The KSI collects the information of the various lines such as the agent position answering