New programs for 911 calls in Medina County

There are new programs for 911 calls in Medina County, which aim to allow first responders to be at the scene of an incident faster. Brunswick Hills Fire Chief Anthony Strazzo said there was a statewide initiative to ensure 911 calls from a cellphone go to the most appropriate dispatch center. Normally, 911 calls go to the county first and are then transferred to a dispatch center in a municipality. Medina County Sheriff's Office Director of Emergency Communications Jonelle Meredith said 911 calls will eventually go straight to the dispatch center in Brunswick, Medina and Wadsworth. The sheriff's office will continue its dispatch services for places in the county that do not have their own centers. "It decreases what we call the call processing time," Strazzo said. "That's just getting the general information of the emergency and getting emergency responders en route to assist." Brunswick's dispatch center takes calls for both the city and the township. Meredith said calls from Verizon users can go straight to municipalities, but AT&T and T-Mobile are not ready yet. Another new program for 911 calls is called Rapid SOS, Strazzo said. Dispatchers can use GPS to track the location of the 911 caller and be able to follow them if they move. "It'll allow the dispatcher to know exactly where that person is, even if their initial call is one area, and they're driving," he said. "They would know exactly where they're driving to, and they could either forward the call to the next jurisdiction or try to have emergency responders directed to that specific location." The enhanced public safety answering point, registry and census is an additional new 911 call program, Strazzo said. It is a dispatch center database, which lists the proper center for a certain address. "Dispatch had a female from Hawaii that was here, and she was suffering from a medical issue at one of the stores," he said. "They called whatever jurisdiction she lived in, and they were able to put dispatch in contact with the family." Contact reporter Madisyn Woodring at (330) 721-4049 or mwoodring@medina-gazette.com.