The City Council’s Committee on Fire and Criminal Justice Services held an oversight hearing Friday on the “Unified Call Taking” project as critics of the system are calling for it to be overhauled.
Officials from the de Blasio administration appeared before the Council to announce two reviews of the system.
One will look at the technology and any contracts associated with the project while the second will be a comprehensive look at how 911 calls are answered.
They will try to determine whether 911 operators should first ask callers about the nature of the emergency or if they should ask for the location.
They used last year’s 911 call about a fire in a Staten Island convent as an example of how simple miscommunication can delay response times.
“When you’re working with a system that is a life saving system. And again, you’re always looking to improve it, and you’re always looking to perfect it because it’s a life saving system, you have to be very careful when you implement change,” said Mayor’s Office of Operations Director Mindy Parlow.
Mayor Bill de Blasio called for a full review of the 911 system last month after announcing major work on the Emergency Communications Technology project be halted as part of a sweeping multi-agency examination.
The upgrades, which started under Mayor Michael Bloomberg, were delayed and ended up a billion dollars over budget.
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