(15 Jul 2025)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Naples, Florida – 11 July 2025
1. Various of dispatcher on a 911 call
2. SOUNDBITE (English) Sheriff Kevin Rambosk, Collier County:
"We are in our emergency 9-1-1 communications center and we are in the throes of preparing for the upcoming hurricane season. But this also functions daily as our 9-1-1 center, which is equally important. And we have a system in Collier County that is one of the most advanced high-tech emergency 9-1-1 communication systems in the country."
3. Wide of emergency dispatch center
4. Various of dispatchers taking calls and monitoring screens
5. SOUNDBITE (English) Bob Finney, Director of Communications Technology, Collier County Sheriff’s Office:
"Oftentimes, in the case of hurricanes or other storms, they, you know, don’t know where the major impact is going to be, but you can start seeing by the data that’s coming in, where is the impact the greatest? Where is it that we need to send the most resources? Not just wait on just 9-1-1 calls, but you can start seeing, where there’s a place, seeing in a geographic view, really, what’s happening and and how to best respond to that."
6. Various of dispatchers taking calls and monitoring screens
7. SOUNDBITE (English) Bob Finney, Director of Communications Technology, Collier County Sheriff’s Office:
"You know, there’s some bumps and bruises when you’re working with new technology and figure this out. So we want to obviously perfect it for here in Collier County. But at the same time, make it easier for adoption to our neighbors in other counties here and really across the country."
8. Various of dispatchers monitoring technology system
9. SOUNDBITE (English) Sheriff Kevin Rambosk, Collier County:
"We just believe that when we can reduce the response time using technology, it will improve safety and survivability of those calling in. And that’s really what we’re all about, is keeping people safe and rescuing them when they need it."
10. Close of dispatcher typing on a keyboard during a call
11. Sheriff Rambosk monitoring dispatch operations
12. Wide of emergency dispatch center
STORYLINE:
When an emergency happens in Collier County, Florida, the 911 calls go to one of the most high-tech communications centers in the United States, where callers can sent text and images from the scene to dispatchers.
Moving to what’s known as a NG911 — or Next Generation 911 — system is a mission Sheriff Kevin Rambosk and Bob Finney, the county’s director of communication, have been on for much of the past decade.
It’s a long way from Feb. 16, 1968, when Sen. Rankin Fite made the nation’s very first 911 call in Haleyville, Alabama, on a bright red, rotary-style landline telephone. That call came just 35 days after AT&T announced plans to use 911 as a nationwide emergency number.
Today, most calls to 911 come in on cell phones, with dispatchers in upgraded centers using geo tracking to get accurate geographic locations from callers.
The Collier County Sheriff’s Office covers 911 calls from about 2,030 square miles that stretch from sandy beaches at the southernmost tip of the Gulf Coast on Florida’s peninsula inland to the Everglades.
It’s a region that has been ravaged by hurricanes this century, including Charley, Wilma and Katrina in 2004 and 2005, Hurricane Irma in 2017 and Hurricanes Ian and Milton most recently.
That’s why Sheriff Rambosk wanted a high tech emergency operations center. He noted they were the first county in Florida to offer text to 911.
AP Video by Cody Jackson
===========================================================
Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork
Twitter: https://twitter.com/AP_Archive
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/APArchives
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/APNews/
You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/youtube/ebcef0d448a8418e84777772bbdccc33
Author: AP Archive
Go to Source
News post in July 20, 2025, 6:05 am.
Visit Our Sponsor’s:
News Post In – News
