The Kansas 911 Coordinating Council’s (the Council’s) recent efforts have focused on providing affordable, NG911 capable call handling to the Public Safety Answering Points (PSAPs) in Kansas, but many of them are operating on old or outdated equipment in other critical areas. Some of the systems needed to process NG911 calls can be very expensive and require large up-front expenditures of funds that are simply not available to many Kansas PSAPs, almost half of which operate on only $60,000 per year in 911 fees. Most of that money is taken up by regular recurring costs like phone lines, utility bills, and maintenance fees. Building up the reserves to tackle a large expenditure can be burdensome in any PSAP and impossible in some. Many PSAPs in Kansas need NG911 compliant voice recorders, new or updated Computer Aided Dispatch (CAD) systems, updated computer hardware and broadband data infrastructure, or wish to start Emergency Medical Dispatch systems but cannot afford the implementation costs.
To address this need, the Council applied to the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA)’s 911 Grant Program and received funding for a subgrant project that can provide PSAPs with the funds to help cover the costs of hardware, software, and training associated with the processing and dispatching of NG911 calls.
See the document below for more information.
https://www.kansas911.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/NG911-Grants-for-Kansas-PSAPS.pdf
