Communications/911 Dispatch Center 

A public-safety answering point (PSAP), sometimes called "public-safety access point", is a call center responsible for answering calls to an emergency telephone number (911) for police, fire, and ambulance services. Trained personnel are also responsible for dispatching these emergency services.

Our PSAP is capable of identifying a callers location for landline calls, and can handle mobile phone locations as well (sometimes referred to as phase II location), where the mobile phone company has a handset location system. We can also use voice broadcasting, where outgoing voice mail can be sent to many phone numbers at once, in order to alert people to a local emergency such as a wild fire, flooding or a chemical spill.

Madison County has now implemented and is currently using the text to 911 feature for our county. In order for a cell phone to be utilized for a Text to 911 it must have SMS (Short Message Service) capability and it must be activated. There is no charge to the customer’s bill for SMS/Text to 911. Currently, videos, photos and other digital files cannot be sent or received. 
If you are in an area where Text to 911 is not available, or the cell phone carrier has not offered text to 911, the consumer will receive an automatic “Bounce-Back” message relayed by the wireless carrier. This message is intended to alert the consumer to this fact by stating, “Please make a voice call to 911. There is no text service to 911 available at this time.” 

Madison County's PSAP is staffed with eight dedicated Communications Officers who are highly trained. Communications Officers must go through 3 to 6 months training in our center and two weeks of training at the Montana Law Enforcement Academy.


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Dispatch Center
We moved in to our Communications Centers current location in June of 2012. Before this center, the PSAP was located in the basement of the Court House.


  

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a Parents and Educators Guide for 911 and kids 

  1. 911 for Kids

Click on the link above to get the packet below for Parents and Educators to help Children Learn about disasters. You can help children prepare for disasters and teach them how to protect themselves. 

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