Jefferson City council to discuss 911 infrastructure upgrade at next meeting

Editor's note: The story has been updated to say that the vote was tabled, not approved.

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

The Jefferson City council tabled a request by the Jefferson City Police Department for an upgrade to 911 infrastructure at its meeting on Monday.

The request came from Ward 5 Councilwoman Mackenzie Job, who asked the council to delay the vote until its next meeting to allow for further discussion on April 2.

If approved, proposal would allow JCPD to upgrade the department call delivery system. Specifically, it will go from legacy Centralized Automatic Message Accounting (CAMA) trunk lines to a next-generation emergency services IP network (ESInet). It would also renew JCPD's five-year contract with Intrado for 911 call handling, which will include a hardware upgrade.

According to a memo filed with the city, the older system is a "copper-based voice system" and is being phased out by telecommunications carriers. That makes support for the system more costly and difficult. The memo said emergency communications are increasingly switching to "wireless and data-rich information (text, video and precise location data)," which is straining the current system.

The new system, according to the memo, uses internet protocol to support voice, text and other "critical data." It will improve the accuracy of call routing and help reduce misdirected 911 calls.

The total cost for this project is currently $458,351 to be used over a five-year period.