The Windsor Police Service has made the move to the Next Generation 9-1-1 network in the first phase of an upgrade to the 9-1-1 system.
The move from the legacy 9-1-1 network and systems marks a big leap forward in how the Windsor Police Emergency 9-1-1 Centre delivers life-saving services.
While the way callers contact 9-1-1 remains unchanged, the new technology will provide faster, more secure, and accurate data for 911 communicators in an age of smartphones.
It will include more precise location and caller information for faster response, enhanced cybersecurity and system resilience, backup capabilities to prevent service disruption, and a new auto text-back feature for abandoned 9-1-1 calls such as pocket dials, freeing up time for 9-1-1 communicators.
Director of the Emergency 911 Centre Laura Smith says they've been working for seven years to get to this point.
"This is a big change. The CRTC mandated all primary public safety answering points across Canada upgrade. As of right now, there are not that many, so we are one of the first few doing this," she says.
The Windsor Police Emergency 9-1-1 Centre is responsible for answering all 9-1-1 and non-emergency calls within Windsor and Amherstburg.
In 2024, 9-1-1 communicators handled a total of 441,465 calls-an average of approximately 1,206 calls per day.
Smith says this is a huge improvement they've been waiting for.
"When I started, there were very few cellphones, and it was mostly landlines. Now landlines are few and far between," she says. "So this is a great improvement because with the accuracy of the location where people are, that's going to be so helpful to first responders."
Smith says the new auto text-back feature for abandoned 9-1-1 calls, such as pocket dials, will help free up time for 9-1-1 communicators.
"Now it will send a text back and say, 'your phone has called 9-1-1. If you have an emergency, please dial 9-1-1 back right away.' Just to let them know, because we do get a lot of pocket dials, people who are out running-because you can tell they're running because you can hear it in their pocket. We still want to make sure there's not an emergency on their end," she says.
In the future, the new system will allow for the use of multimedia communication such as real-time text, images, and video but there is still work before the system transitions to that phase.
The NG9-1-1 transition, mandated by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC), was implemented through collaborative efforts by the Emergency 9-1-1 Centre, Technology Services team, and other units across Windsor Police.
The Ontario government has provided over $1.7 million since 2022 to support the Windsor Police Service's transition to NG9-1-1.
In March, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) moved the deadline to transition to next-generation 911 to March 2027.
The CRTC said that while telecoms are ready for the move, most provincial, territorial, and municipal emergency services are not.