California Legislature—2015–16 Regular Session

Assembly Bill No. 510

Introduced by Assembly Members Rodriguez and Williams

February 23, 2015

An act to add and repeal Section 53122 of the Government Code, relating to emergency services.

LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL’S DIGEST

AB 510, as introduced, Rodriguez. Emergency services: 911 emergency communication system.

The Warren-911-Emergency Assistance Act requires a local public agency to adopt a plan to implement a 911 emergency telephone response system, and establishes the State 911 Advisory Board to advise on specified subjects relating to the state’s 911 emergency telephone response system.

Existing law requires the Office of Emergency Services to determine annually, on or before October 1, a surcharge rate that it estimates will produce sufficient revenue to fund the current fiscal year’s 911 costs, as specified.

Existing law also requires the office to develop a plan and timeline of target dates for testing, implementing, and operating a Next Generation 911 emergency communication system, including text to 911 service, throughout this state. Existing law requires the office, in determining the surcharge rate, to additionally include costs it expects to incur, consistent with the plan and timeline, to plan, test, implement, and operate Next Generation 911 technology and services, including text to 911 service. Existing law requires the office, at least one month before determining the surcharge rate, to prepare a summary of the calculation of the proposed surcharge and make it available to the Legislature and the 911 Advisory Board, and on the office’s Internet Web site.

This bill would require the office, by January 1, 2017, to conduct a comprehensive review of California’s 911 emergency communications system, including all public safety answering points, available technology, funding needs, and telephone and equipment limitations, and provide a report on its findings to the Legislature, to include specified information and recommendations.

Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: yes. State-mandated local program: no.

The people of the State of California do enact as follows:

SECTION 1.  

The Legislature finds and declares all of the
following:

(a) There are gaps in public safety protection. Also, accurate
caller location information is vital for 911 calls and the safety of
Californians.

(b) Problems with the current 911 systems include: (1)
misrouting a call to an entirely incorrect public safety answering
point (PSAP), sometimes in a different city or region, and (2)
delivery of inaccurate caller location information to the proper
PSAP.

(c) In many areas, approximately 70 to 80 percent of 911 calls
are made by wireless devices, and in many cases the exact location
of the caller is not immediately known. Calls are generally
forwarded to a California Highway Patrol PSAP. The caller is
queried, the location determined, and the call transferred to a local
dispatch center. This often results in delays in the arrival of
emergency medical services responders and the provision of
important medical care. On some occasions errors in this process
have resulted in serious injury or death.

(d) The 911 system is technology dependent, which over the
years has steadily improved. There are, however, significant
problems with the 911 system and planning, and recent
developments in technology and decisions made by the Federal
Communications Commission (FCC) require the state to reassess
policies and practices.

(e) On January 29, 2015, the FCC voted to adopt rules to help
emergency responders to better locate wireless callers to 911. The
FCC press release stated:

“These updates to the Commission’s Enhanced 911 (E911) rules
respond to Americans’ increasing use of wireless phones to call
911, especially from indoors, where traditional 911 location
technologies often do not work effectively or at all. The new rules
take advantage of technological developments that will allow for
more accurate location information to be transmitted with indoor
911 calls.

The Commission’s E911 rules require wireless providers to
automatically transmit to 911 call centers information on the
location of wireless 911 callers, within certain parameters for
accuracy. These rules, which were adopted in 1996 and underwent
their last major revision in 2010, enabled wireless providers to
meet this accuracy standard based solely on the measured
performance of outdoor wireless 911 calls. However calling habits
are changing. Many Americans are replacing landlines with
wireless phones, with more than two out of five U.S. households
now relying solely on wireless. Most 911 calls are currently made
from wireless phones, and most wireless calls are made from
indoors. This increases the likelihood that wireless 911 calls will
come from indoor environments where traditional location accuracy
technologies, optimized for outdoor calling, may not work.

To close this gap in performance, the Commission today updated
its E911 rules to include requirements focused on indoor location
accuracy. The new rules are intended to help first responders locate
Americans calling for help from indoors, including challenging
environments such as large multi-story buildings, where responders
are often unable to determine the floor or even the building where
the 911 call originated.

The new rules establish clear and measurable timelines for
wireless providers to meet indoor location accuracy benchmarks,
both for horizontal and vertical location information. The
Commission noted that no single technological approach will solve
the challenge of indoor location, and no solution can be
implemented overnight. The new requirements therefore enable
wireless providers to choose the most effective solutions and allow
sufficient time for development of applicable standards,
establishment of testing mechanisms, and deployment of new
location technology.

The new rules were informed by extensive input from
stakeholders, including public safety organizations, wireless
providers, technology vendors, state and local governments, and
public interest groups. The Commission emphasized that its
ultimate objective in this proceeding is for all Americans - whether
they are calling 911 from urban or rural areas, from indoors or
outdoors - to receive the support they need in times of emergency.
Today’s action takes affirmative steps to make that happen.”

(f) It is imperative that the State of California perform a review
of its 911 emergency communications system policies and
procedures, to make changes that reflect technology available now
and in the near future, and to make plans to improve the 911 system
in order to protect lives.

SEC. 2.  

Section 53122 is added to the Government Code, to
read:

53122.  

(a) The Office of Emergency Services shall, by January
1, 2017, conduct a comprehensive review of California’s 911
emergency communications system, including all public safety
answering points, available technology, funding needs, and
telephone and equipment limitations, and provide a report on its
findings to the Legislature. The report shall provide information
regarding the accuracy of calls made by mobile devices made in
different areas of the state and shall include office
recommendations for future investment in services and
coordination with private and public groups needed to improve
service and accuracy.

(b) (1) A report to be submitted pursuant to subdivision (a)
shall be submitted in compliance with Section 9795.

(2) Pursuant to Section 10231.5, this section is repealed on
January 1, 2020.