State Agency and OnStar Set to Roll Out 911 Data Upgrade

There have been several examples in recent years of major problems with California government IT systems, most recently the widespread fraud that struck the Employment Development Department during the COVID-19 pandemic and EDD’s related inability to process unemployment claims and respond to inquiries in a timely manner.

The California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services (Cal OES) is working to remind everyone that the state can and does provide leading-edge technology and expects to roll out a major add-on to California’s modernizing 911 system by next month.

Cal OES is partnering with RapidDeploy and General Motors’ OnStar subsidiary to provide dispatchers at the state’s 450 public safety answering points — or PSAPs, a governmental term for 911 call centers — with real-time OnStar accident information within seconds of an accident occurring.     

Dispatchers are now being trained intensively on how to use the new information, and the new service is expected to roll out in May, said Budge Currier, the Cal OES emergency communications branch manager.

“We are in a place where we can be at the leading edge of cutting-edge technologies,” Currier said. “The technology is deployed, and we’re completing the training, making sure that the (centers) are ready to go.”

Currier said the 911 system upgrade really got underway in 2018 when Apple and Android phones began sending accurate GPS-based location information that allowed dispatchers to pinpoint the exact location of an accident. Previously, the best location that could be determined was the cell tower.

“We started to look at what equipment existed in our PSAPs that could have received that information. Of the 450 statewide, maybe 10 to 20 could. We knew this information was critical because better location accuracy saves lives,” he said.

So Cal OES started a bid process in the fall of 2018, and in March 2019 awarded a $6.6 million, two-year contract to RapidDeploy, a South Africa-based startup that was in the process of moving its headquarters to Austin, Texas. Currier said the company deployed its cloud-based platform within a few months and, after testing, deployed it to the rest of the PSAPs in six to eight months.

But the state wanted to move the antiquated 911 systems even further ahead, as many still rely on copper wire telephone lines for calls and data transmission. The next upgrade took place in 2020, when RapidDeploy implemented text capability between dispatchers and accident victims within 30 days after being asked to do so, which Currier said was a remarkably short time frame.

Steven Raucher, the co-founder and CEO of RapidDeploy, said that in order to provide the data, the company needed to develop an Internet-of-Things (IoT) appliance that could be plugged into an analog phone system to serve as a data gateway.

And later in 2020, RapidDeploy was tasked to integrate automated crash data from OnStar into the state’s 911 system, which officials with all three organizations agreed will be a major game-changer.

“Our work with RapidDeploy has been over the past six months, working on the back end and testing,” said Cathy Bishop, senior manager for OnStar Global Emergency Services. “From 2004 onward, our service advisers could verbally relay the crash data to 911 centers. They could take some of the data over the phone, but (the dispatchers) are incredibly busy and often had to quickly disconnect (to handle another call), so the amount of data they actually received was not always optimal. We’re pleased now to be able to send it electronically.

“This is one of the most ambitious programs I’m aware of around the world. California typically is a leader for public safety innovation, and we’re honored to be a part of it.”

The data the vehicles automatically send to OnStar are comprehensive, Raucher said.

“OnStar has the best triage system available. When someone hits the red button in the car, the make and model of the car pops up as the call taker answers the phone. They also immediately receive data, such as, were air bags deployed? Were the seat belts fastened? What were the G-forces? Did the vehicle roll? That (informs responders) if it’s a fender bender or if the car flipped three times. And every minute you can improve your response, you’re changing the outcome of people’s lives,” he said.

RapidDeploy was launched in Raucher’s native South Africa in 2016 when he and the other co-founder, Brett Meyerowitz, met at a dinner party in Cape Town. In Africa, the pair tried for six months to interest area governments in their initial product, a Chrome-based system designed for the continent’s technology challenges. To expand the company’s business possibilities, Raucher attended a public safety conference in the U.S. in 2017 and was shocked at how antiquated the American 911 system was.

“We never imagined there was a problem in the world’s most advanced country. When I told my business partner what I was seeing, I had to Facetime him to have him look at the software selling here,” he said.

Since securing the contract with Cal OES, the company has signed agreements to serve Arizona, Minnesota and Kansas, along with large portions of Arkansas. The company is now negotiating with seven other states as well.

Bishop said OnStar plans to continue working with RapidDeploy to provide instantaneous crash data to dispatchers in all 50 states. Both work closely with AT&T, which operates the nationwide FirstNet emergency communications system launched after 9/11.

Bishop has a personal interest in improving emergency response. Before joining OnStar, she ran a 911 center in the Detroit area when they got a call 25 years ago from a woman whose estranged husband was attacking her. Because they didn’t have accurate cellphone location, first responders were not able to find her before the woman was murdered.

“Because we were in the Detroit area, I was aware of OnStar technology and thought it’s a technology I wanted to be associated with,” Bishop said. “It was a career aspiration to do something different but still be saving lives and making communities safer.”