As of this week, 9-1-1 operators now have the technical capability of pinpointing the locations of emergency calls made from cell phones.

This City-County partnership led to the collective purchase of a single 9-1-1 emergency phone system to serve both. Purchasing a single system saves Akron and Summit County nearly $150,000 from the cost if each purchased its own.

The agreement will also ensure maintenance expenses will be reduced by as much as 40% by eliminating redundancies. Summit County and the City of Akron previously owned and operated independent 9-1-1 systems.

With this purchase, the new 9-1-1 system now goes above and beyond the previous technology to keep up with the abundance of cellular devices. City and county call takers in the 9-1-1 dispatch center will now be provided with telephone numbers and locations for wireless 9-1-1 calls as well as for so-called traditional, land-line phones.

The new system will automatically display a caller's location on a map at the call taker's station after receiving positioning information from the wireless phone. This will give the call taker the location of the caller.  Previously there was no such information available from a cellular call to 9-1-1.

The system was purchased from AT&T at a cost of roughly $750,000.

Energizing New Partnerships

As part of this continuing affiliation designed to streamline government and make it more efficient, Plusquellic and Pry also announced they are reinvigorating the City-County task force whose job it will be to identify areas in which the two jurisdictions can share services and resources in public safety and other areas of government.

The work began last year when Plusquellic appointed a Collaboration Committee to begin the process. Pry and his new administration have embraced the regional approach and the idea of working smarter, as partners, a process begun with his predecessor, James B. McCarthy.

"The overall intent of this regional affiliation is to strengthen our performance for our citizens," said Pry. It is where we need to go to remain as effective as possible."

Plusquellic had appointed a task force last year and is pleased Summit County wants to continue working from this approach.

"We have had success in collaborative efforts with the county in the Weights and Measures division, in law enforcement and with our cooperative reverse 9-1-1 emergency protocol," said the mayor. (Reverse Alert, as it is called, automatically calls and notifies citizens of imminent and critical emergency situations.)

Plusquellic added that all have saved the taxpayers money and have made municipal and county government more efficient.

Late last year, the City's Division of Weights and Measures was phased out, and a new contractual agreement with Summit County shifted all inspection work to the county government, eliminating any duplication of services.

Akron and Summit County also cooperate on law enforcement training, and a new, 800-megahertz countywide emergency radio system. The Summit County Sheriff’s Department shares with the Akron Police, Fire and EMS departments the 9-1-1 emergency call center in the Summit County Safety Building downtown, and the city and county have also partnered in recruiting businesses in Israel, Europe and China.

"This is what working smarter is all about," said Pry.