Re: 9-1-1 for Campuses or Business Complexes

[Dan Maas <dim1@cornell.edu>]

Dave,
Cornell University and Tompkins County switched to 911 in August of 1997.
Several years of planning went into the process.  Cornell Police maintains
an on campus dispatch center and they are responsible for dispatching their
police officers (they have primary police responsibility for the campus)
and my department (Environmental Health & Safety).

All 911 calls from campus phones go to the Cornell Police dispatch center.
Even if the caller dials 9-911 (you dial a 9 before the phone number to
make an off campus call) the call is trapped and sent to the Cornell Police
dispatch center.  Pay phones that are on campus are not on the Cornell
phone system so those calls go directly to the Tompkins County 911 Center.
Cornell Police takes the call and dispatches their police units and any
EH&S units and then requests additional agencies (fire, rescue or
ambulance) via a hotline to the Tompkins County 911 Center.  (Option 2 in
your e-mail)

Cornell Police maintained their old emergency phone number (5-1111) and
people are supposed to use it for non-emergency types of calls (key
requests, noise complaints, parking complaints, malfunctioning smoke
detectors, etc.).  The phone stickers used on campus have 911 and 5-1111
and 255-1111 listed on them.  There was a major publicity campaign before
911 was turned on to educate the public about the proper use of 911.  I can
send you samples of the pamphlets and other materials that were developed.

There are some problems that we've seen with the system.  Callers from pay
phones get the county dispatch center and they send the appropriate
emergency services but they do NOT notify the Cornell Police dispatch
center.  The off-campus emergency services rely on Cornell EH&S and Cornell
Police to be on the scene to assist them so it becomes a problem when we
don't know they're coming to campus.  The primary & backup EH&S emergency
responders carry county fire pagers so they can monitor for fire, rescue or
ambulance being dispatched to Cornell property.

We've had some problems with people trying to make off campus international
calls.  They misdial and instead of dialing 9-011 they dial 9-11.  The
telephone folks have come up with an equipment solutions to cut down on the
number of those calls.

As a result of 911 we had to evaluate our emergency response and dispatch
procedures.  Cornell Police handles 911 hangup and open line calls and EH&S
has an assisting role in 911 open line calls.  We've also done some
re-evaluation of our EMS response.

Feel free to contact me if you would like more information or would like to
get in touch with some of the other people that were involved in the
planning process.


DANIEL MAAS      (607)254-1634     FAX: (607)255-1642
Emergency Planning Coordinator
Fire Protection & Emergency Services
Cornell University Environmental Health & Safety
EH&S Bldg,  201 Palm Road, Ithaca, NY  14850
email: dim1@cornell.edu

******************Disclaimer*************************
The comments and views expressed in this communication are
strictly my own and are not to be construed to officially represent
those of my peers, supervisors or Cornell University
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