Knox County 911 Operations Director told the Board of Commissioners that a half percent of the January 911 calls made in Knox County originate from landlines.
The decline in landline use for emergency calls was highlighted during a board meeting, reflecting changes in how residents contact emergency services. The shift away from landlines has implications for how emergency response systems are managed and updated.
"We keep seeing that go down and it definitely has gone down and you'll, you'll find that most of the calls that do come in on the landline are more than likely a business (...) because there just aren't that many people anymore that have them in their home," Laura Webster said, according to a meeting video.
According to the same video, Webster said that 3,757 calls for service were made to the dispatch center during January. Of those, 1,639 calls were made to the 911 emergency line. Non-emergency administration lines received 5,151 calls. Webster also noted that the peak day for 911 calls was Saturday with the busiest time at 11 a.m., while non-emergency administrative lines saw their highest volume on Fridays at 2 p.m. "Those times and days change," Webster said.
Webster further reported she was joined by Chief Information Officer Trevor Ditmars and Geographic Information Systems Supervisor Justin Smith to attend a kickoff meeting with the State of Ohio for the Next Generation 911 system. She said Knox County is preparing to go live with NextGen 911 in May.
According to OARNet, Next Generation 911 shifts emergency response operations from analog to digital. This modernization allows the public to share more detailed data—such as videos, images and texts—with call centers. OARnet managed networking aspects of Ohio’s pilot program for this initiative.
