Fundraising begins for Smart911 services

Emergency officials say upgrading to a sophisticated 911 system in Flathead County will help both emergency personnel and civilians respond better in the event of both minor personal incidents and major community disasters.

Best of all, it will not cost private citizens anything.

Fundraising efforts by the Flathead 911 Foundation are underway to raise $85,000 that will provide the county’s dispatch center with access to Smart911 services for five years.

“I feel it is important that we are able to offer the services to our citizens that they expect from us,” Flathead County 911 Director Elizabeth Brooks said. “Frankly there is not enough interlocal funding to support it,” which is why the foundation has stepped in with its fundraising effort.

When citizens call 911 in Flathead County, the dispatch center currently gets a limited amount of information. For a land line, the center will usually be able to access a name, address and phone number, but for many cellphones, they will only get a phone number and approximate location.

Smart911 is a private service that supplements that information on a voluntary basis. If people who have enrolled their phone number at Smart911.com call 911 with an emergency, then a profile that corresponds to that phone number will flash across the dispatcher’s screen for up to a half hour.

“It gives citizens the opportunity to be proactive in their own emergency,” Brooks said. “As county officials we spend so much time preplanning for emergencies before it comes and it gives the citizen a chance to pre-plan themselves.”

Users voluntarily enroll their phone numbers before an emergency happens and can include pertinent details for the entire household that might be of interest to responders. The service is free for users.

The information included can be as limited as listing a medical illness like diabetes, severe allergies, or epilepsy that might explain why a person is incapacitated or as extensive as including photos of children so law enforcement can circulate the images in case of an abduction. Some families include the floor plans of their homes with the location and ages of each family member in the house so firefighters know where to look in the event of fire.

“If your child wanders away at the fair, then the right people will have a photo of who they are looking for immediately,” Brooks said. “If people would just assign a physical address to their cell phone number it would be a great help.”

Dispatchers cannot search for personal profiles, and users’ information is kept secure from random search, only becoming available during calls to 911.

Two communities are registered for the service in Montana. In other parts of the country, usage of the service is higher. All emergency systems in the state of Arkansas are enrolled. Approximately 1,200 emergency systems in the United States utilize Smart911. Users who live outside covered areas can still create a profile, and if they dial in to a 911 system that has the service, their profile will still be relayed to the dispatcher.

In 2012 Missoula County became the first community in the state to adopt the system. Nick Holloway, program coordinator for Missoula County Office of Emergency Management, said the public and responders have both reacted positively to the service, which cost county government around $30,000 per year. In addition to the basic Smart911 coverage, Missoula County has also opted into a feature that sends notifications to enrolled citizens in the event of a communitywide emergency. Brooks said it might be a future option if Flathead County is able to fund basic Smart911.

Around 1,200 households in Missoula had signed up for Smart911 as of July, but Holloway expects those numbers may have made a substantial jump during this summer’s intense wildfire season.

“We have used it for an evacuation, and missing people,” Holloway said. “We used it last year when there was an armed robber loose, and we alerted people in that area. All of our emergency responders love it and they all endorse it.”

Flathead 911 Foundation Director Nan Askew said she hopes her organization can help provide the service in the Flathead. The foundation works to provide equipment to the county’s emergency personnel. In the past year the group has raised about one-third of the funding it needs for the Smart911 services.

Askew said she is passionate about helping emergency responders.

“They never give up,” Askew said. “They are just an incredible people. If there was an avalance they would use their own equipment if they had to. We felt that we should help meet these needs for equipment.” 

Askew said donations can be mailed to the Flathead 911 Foundation c/o Nan Askew, 3 Ridge Crest Ct. Whitefish, MT 59937.

Reporter Megan Strickland may be reached at 758-4459 or by email at mstrickland@dailyinterlake.com.