Last summer, Cook County, Ill., put in place an enhanced 911 (E-911) crisis response system. By implementing the system, the county becomes one of the first local governments in the nation to ensure that firefighters, police and ambulance attendants can locate people who have made emergency calls from county buildings.

Under basic 911, an emergency dispatcher knows only the billing address for the phone system from which an emergency call originates. Under E-911, an emergency dispatcher knows the caller's street address and his specific location, such as “the west hallway on the ninth floor.”

In August 1999, the Illinois Emergency Telephone System Act was amended to require government agencies, schools and businesses to have E-911 systems in place by July 2001. To comply, Cook County began searching for a system that would serve its needs. More than anything, the county required a completely automated system that did not need manual intervention.

The county contracted with Chicago-based RedSky Technologies to install a centralized E-911, call accounting, work order and directory management system. Because the E-911 and directory systems are linked, changes to the directory are automatically reflected in the E-911 system. The implementation process, which began in early 2001 and lasted about four months, included audit services, software installation, data integration and system testing phases.

Today, the system serves approximately 24,000 county telephone stations. When dispatchers answer emergency calls from county buildings, they can route emergency personnel to the caller's exact location.