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Bloomberg Backs Liu's Fiscal Approach to 911 System Modernization

By Carrie Schmelkin
TMCnet Web Editor

New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg (News - Alert) has decided to back his New York City Comptroller John Liu in advocating for fiscal responsibility in still trying times.

Bloomberg recently acquiesced to Liu’s demand that the city stop putting millions into its 911 system modernization. In January, Liu refused to approve a contract with Northrop Grumman (News - Alert) Corporation, a leader in global security, for $286 million. The contract called for the design and installation of computer software for a $650 million backup 911 call center the city is building in the Bronx as part of that modernization, the New York Daily News reported.

Last week, City Hall aides addressed Liu’s concerns and submitted an amended Northrop Grumman contract to Liu for just $94 million. Liu had also asked that the contract be a fixed price that protects against cost overruns, instead of a contract that pays consultants by the hour – something which City Hall officials ultimately supported.

"We're hoping [Liu] will sign off on it this time," mayoral spokesman Jason Post said, according to the published article.

Another part of the contract that will still have to be negotiated is the cost for the software and some other outstanding issues.

Currently, Liu is working on an audit of the entire 911 effort, known as the Emergency Communications Transformation Project (ECTP), which is designed to centralize and integrate the call taking and dispatch operations among the New York Police Department, Fire Department of New York, and New York Emergency Medical Services.

In 2009, Bloomberg announced that the first milestone of the product, Unified Call Taking, which is an integrated call taking operations between the police and fire departments, was successfully implemented in the city’s 911 centers. Unified Call Taking streamlines the call taking process to reduce call handling time for fire calls and allow first responders to reach New Yorkers in an emergency more quickly.

“Now when you call 911 to report a fire, you will speak to only to one call taker, and give the address and nature of your emergency only one time,” Bloomberg said at the time. “By cutting out the middle-man in the process, we will shorten the time it takes for the Fire Department to begin its response to emergencies, which could save lives. I want to thank the inter-agency team whose hard work and cooperation made these improvements possible.”

In other 911 service news, Verizon and Intrado recently announced their intentions to start a new initiative to advance the state of 911 emergency services in the U.S. through the deployment of a modern 911 services platform, powered by IP-based technologies.