Grant would boost city’s 911 service

By Riley Funk

St. Joseph’s 911 system could be about to get a big upgrade.

The City Council has approved the filing of an application with the Missouri 911 Service Board to move a project forward that would replace the current 911 system used by emergency dispatchers at the Law Enforcement Center from its traditional landline to an internet-based network.

Capt. Jason Strong of the St. Joseph Police Department oversees the local communications center and said the project will improve the redundancy of the 911 operations in the area, offering multiple communication lines on several different fronts. This means if one piece of the system fails, communication is still in place.

Strong provided an example of what that may look like.

“These systems that have fiber (internet) if that fails, we have a cellular option and if that fails we go over to a cable option,” he said.

The upgrades with the Next Generation 911 system will fulfill a big need in the area. First, the 911 operations would aim to make the service faster. It would also allow for different types of communication to come through the 911 network including voice, photos, videos and text messages.

Right now, the city is using a traditional landline system that has been in place for the last 40 years.

“Our landlines, those are just lines that come in (to the communications center). If something happens to those lines, we don’t have a 911 service,” Strong said.

It’s a change that will benefit everyone in an emergency — the dispatcher, the person in need of help and crews responding to the call.

“We’ve got a system that is working now (the traditional landline system). We just want a system that can be more effective, more technologically advanced and just have greater redundancy in the future,” Strong said.

There are still approvals needed to make the project a reality in St. Joseph.

The grant application will be sent in by September. From there, the project would have to be executed by December 2026. There isn’t a timeline yet for installing the system but Strong estimates it will take anywhere from six to eight months to finish.

It’s an expensive undertaking. Strong said that portions of the project that may receive upgrades, such as the call handling equipment for dispatchers, can cost in the range of $500,000.

Strong is hopeful St. Joseph will get the grant as he said bringing in new communications services will better serve the community.

“I am cautiously optimistic that will receive some funding of some sort,” Strong said. “It’s succession planning for our equipment in the communication center, which is very expensive, but it’s a critical part of infrastructure for the city of St. Joseph.”