(The Center Square) – A bill that would institute more oversight for California’s NextGen 911 system is expected to garner approval by a key policy committee in the state’s Assembly on Wednesday afternoon.
Senate Bill 985, by Sen. Tony Strickland, R-Huntington Beach, requires the Office of Emergency Services – which oversees the modernization of California’s NextGen 911 system – to submit reports to the Legislature every quarter that details how the rollout of that system is going.
“I authored this bill to bring about more accountability and transparency because we need to upgrade this 911 system,” Strickland told The Center Square on Wednesday afternoon. “The most essential role of government is public safety. When we call 911, it’s important that we have the most updated system possible, especially here in California, where we have Silicon Valley.”
The bill previously passed multiple committee hearings in the Senate before passing that chamber this spring. It is now making its way through the Assembly, which will ultimately vote on the bill.
According to a report from the Legislative Analyst’s Office earlier this year, lawmakers pushed for the state to transition to a NextGen 911 system in 2015. That updated system would replace the traditional landline-based 911 calling system with an internet-based one that would allow for voice calls, text messages, transmission of photos and video and enhanced location data. Over the next several years, 23 dispatch centers across the state started transitioning to the NextGen 911 system, but problems soon surfaced in the rollout – dropped calls, routing problems and outages occurred, resulting in the Office of Emergency Services stopping the implementation.
Strickland’s bill stipulates that the Office of Emergency Services has to include information in its quarterly report that details progress implementing the NextGen 911 system, any challenges facing continued rollout, solutions to those challenges, and how much more money the system is expected to cost taxpayers.
The Center Square previously reported that efforts to implement the NextGen 911 system cost California’s taxpayers $456 million.
“911 is integral to public safety,” Sgt. Gerard McCann, public information officer for the Orange County Sheriff’s Office, wrote to The Center Square via email on behalf of Sheriff Don Barnes. “The delays in the NextGen 911 system was a significant setback toward upgrading this vital system. The proposed legislation by Senator Strickland will provide needed oversight to ensure the NextGen 911 system gets back on track, does not go further out of budget, and is completed.”
The Center Square reached out to Democratic lawmakers in the Legislature who sit on public safety-related committees, but did not hear back before publication time. According to a legislative analysis, no groups registered opposition to the bill.
The legislation passed 9-0 on the Assembly Communications and Conveyance Committee’s consent agenda with no testimony or debate, which is common for noncontroversial bills. It will next be voted on by the Assembly Appropriations Committee.
