Recommendation is for Council & Mayor to approve the Implementation Agreement.  

The City/County 911 Center has used International Academy of Emergency Dispatch/Priority Dispatch software platform for almost 15 years to deliver pre-response medical care, and now recently to prioritize medical calls for resource allocation. This software offers a standardized, protocol based, procedural method for dispatchers to ask medically approved questions to determine scene circumstances, deliver instructions to victims and bystanders, and prioritize call volume to attribute the most correct resources for each response required. It is used hundreds of times each day. 

This request represents the purchase, installation, qualification and training of staff to begin using the same software platform but now with both FIRE and LAW ENFORCEMENT response protocols in the same manner that we now currently use the EMS protocols. 

Doing so would serve several vital purposes for the 911 Center. It would standardize training and onboarding processes for new employees while reducing the initial training expense by nearly half. It would offer one complete and inclusive platform for operators to learn as opposed to 5. It would simplify the process of committing to memory a nearly 300-page document with agency-particular response conditions and allow us to automate them in order that agency chiefs/managers get the response they want without having to rely on each individual operator to commit nearly daily changes to memory. In allowing for a reduced training/on-boarding time of new employees, this purchase also represents the ability to bolster our staffing quicker and more efficiently with new employees who contribute to the workload issues present while also freeing up our supervisor ranks to perform actual staff and center operation supervision instead of constantly (better than 75% time commitment now) training a revolving door of new employees. The training process for these protocols is automated through the testing and education software which is also included in this purchase and offers increased assurance to the City and County of having qualified to national standard personnel handling the hundreds of thousands of emergency calls experienced here each year. 

This change would affect the Billings Police Department, Yellowstone County Sheriff's Office, and Billings Fire Department primarily. It would also impact rural fire departments across Yellowstone County. The 911 Advisory Board is comprised of the BPD Chief and Assistant Chief, the Yellowstone County Sheriff and Undersheriff, and the Billings Fire Department Chief and Assistant Chief. The 911 Board has previously approved this change and subsequent purchase. 

City Council may:

• Approve; or,
• Not Approve

We will be using 9-1-1 funds for this purchase. 911 funds are a combination of city and county monies allocated by the State as a result of charging cellular subscribers a 911 exercise tax. 

Staff recommendation is to approve the Implementation Agreement in the amount of $289,198.00 in year 1; and 51,700.00 in years 2, 3, 4, 5.