{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.billnelson.senate.gov/newsroom/news/sen-bill-nelson-seeks-upgrades-to-nation-s-911-systems", "Sen. Bill Nelson seeks upgrades to nations 911 systems", "2017-11-24", "2017", "2017-11", "Democrat", "House", "FL", "Bill Nelson", "N000032", "www.billnelson.senate.gov", null, null, "legacy", "U.S. Sen.\u00a0Bill Nelson, D-Fla., has introduced a bill to modernize the nation\u2019s 911 systems.\u00a0Nelson\u00a0cites a Federal Communications Commission report showing 29 of Florida\u2019s emergency 911 centers including some in Northeast Florida suffered impaired service \u2014 as well as others nationwide \u2014 in the days following Hurricane Irma.\nThe Atlantic Beach Police Department dispatch center was moved into its new building in July. The center was among those impaired after Hurricane Irma. (Atlantic Beach Police Department Facebook/Public)\nThree Northeast Florida police departments were among 29 Florida emergency 911 call centers that suffered impaired service in the days following Hurricane Irma, which also affected many others, federal authorities say.\nThe Federal Communications Commission in a recent report details the outages in portions of Florida, Alabama and Georgia, as well as Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.\nCiting the FCC findings, Sen.\u00a0Bill Nelson, D-Fla., introduced legislation to modernize the nation\u2019s 911 systems by accelerating federal efforts to upgrade that crucial public safety infrastructure.\nNelson\u2019s bill filed Nov. 2 specifically calls for expanding an existing federal grant program designed to help state and local governments deploy next generation 911 systems.\nHe said upgrades \u2014 such as allowing callers to text their local 911 center for help, or send audio, video and photos during an emergency \u2014 are needed to help move the country\u2019s largely analog 911 call centers into the digital age, which currently is dominated by the use of smartphones, tablets and other devices.\n\u201cUpgrading the nation\u2019s 911 system is literally a life and death matter that must become more of a national priority,\u201d\u00a0Nelson\u00a0said.\nGiven modern digital communications technology, \u201cAmericans must have more than one way to access the 911 assistance they need and expect when emergencies occur,\u201d\u00a0Nelson\u00a0said.\n\u201cNo plea for help should go unanswered because a call center doesn\u2019t have the technology to receive a text, video or picture,\u201d he said.\nIn addition to increasing federal support for next generation 911 deployment,\u00a0Nelson\u2019s legislation requires studies on how to better protect 911 systems from cyberattacks and make them more resilient to natural disasters or other catastrophes.\nThe FCC said the hurricane impaired, to some extent, the 911 systems of the Atlantic Beach, Neptune Beach and St. Augustine police departments.\nNine-one-one calls to those three agencies were re-routed with Automatic Location Information, according to the Sept. 12 FCC Communications Status Report for areas impacted by Hurricane Irma.\nAtlantic Beach police officials say \u201cthere were no problems.\u201d But as a precaution, they evacuated to a backup \u201cPublic-Safety Access Point\u201d (PSAP) \u2014 a call center responsible for answering calls to an emergency telephone number for police, firefighting and ambulance services, said Cmdr. Tiffany Layson, police department spokeswoman.\nLayson said that backup center was located farther inland in the event the hurricane\u2019s impact was more severe than anticipated.\n\u201cThe backup facility has full 911 equipment, phones, radio, etc. Rerouting is a routine procedure, so all that was necessary was to reroute the 911 calls to an alternate location,\u201d Layson said.\nShe said it\u2019s kind of like a \u201cspare tire\u201d for the Public-Safety Access Point.\n\u201cThe same way we have a spare tire for our cars in case of emergency, we have a spare 911 site where we can handle calls without any interruption in service,\u201d Layson said.\nLayson also said any upgrades for the Atlantic Beach police 911 center resulting from\u00a0Nelson\u2019s bill would go through the Duval County 911 coordinator.\nOther Florida emergency 911 call centers \u2014 many in South Florida \u2014 were more severely impacted. At one point, 14 call centers statewide were completely offline in Irma\u2019s wake, according to the report.\nThe report also described the status of wireless communications services in the disaster area as of Sept. 12.\nIn Northeast Florida, the outage percentage for cellphone service by county was: Alachua, 15 percent; Baker, 9 percent; Bradford, 18 percent; Clay, 25 percent; Duval, 14 percent; Nassau, 22 percent; Putnam, 31 percent; and St. Johns, 14 percent, the report showed.\nThe statewide outage for cellphone service that day was about 25 percent, according to the report.\nPuerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands in the same area as Alabama, Florida and Georgia for the purposes of the FCC communications service status report following Hurricane Irma.\nSignificant 911 and cell phone service interuptions were documented for both Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands were documented as a result of the hurricane, according to the report.", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://www.billnelson.senate.gov/newsroom/news/sen-bill-nelson-seeks-upgrades-to-nation-s-911-systems"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 2.447440754622221, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}