by James Coulter
To help keep up with the nationwide trend of transitioning 911 services from analog to digital, county commissioners have approved two agreements for technical and software hosting services for Next Generation 9-1-1 (NG9-1-1).
At their regular meeting on Tues. Aug 19, the Polk County Board of County Commissioners (BoCC) voted unanimously to approve two agreements with a company specializing in public safety solutions, specifically with NG9-1-1.
The first agreement will be for technical services to help the county “assess, develop, and correct National Emergency Number Association (NENA) required NG9-1-1 boundary layers, and Polk County E-9-1-1 GIS datasets, for conformance with the NG9-1-1 GIS Data Model,” wrote Brad Howard, Sr. Procurement Analyst.
The second agreement is a Software as a Service (SaaS) subscription agreement, which, as Howard explains, will help provide “the VEP cloud-native solution to validate, edit, and provision public safety GIS data following NG9-1-1 standards and GIS industry best practices.”
The first agreement will have a five-year cost of $381,731, with a one-time cost of $264,425 for implementation services. The second agreement will have a five-year cost of $438,972, with a one-time cost of $7,000 for implementation services.
According to 911.gov, NG9-1-1-1 is “an IP-based emergency call system designed to replace the current analog 911 infrastructure.”
On May 17, 2023, the County, along with eight neighboring counties, approved the Florida 911 Region 4 Next Generation 9-1-1 (NG9-1-1) Project Memorandum of Understanding to help with the transition from analog to digital 911 emergency services.
For this memorandum, DataMark Technologies Validate-Edit-Provision (VEP) software was selected, as Howard explained, “to consume, maintain, and distribute NG-9-1-1 geospatial data.”
According to its website, DataMark Technologies is “committed to enhancing safety and security for schools and communities nationwide.”
“With a deep understanding of public safety and incident response, we are dedicated to helping you create safer communities and ensure the well-being of those you serve,” its website states.
