Evanston’s Emergency Telephone System Board voted Tuesday night to connect Northwestern’s emergency phone system with the city’s 911 center in response to pressure from the Illinois Commerce Commission to have NU emergency calls routed to a state-authorized center.
Board Chairman Ald. Edmund Moran (6th) said he expects work to begin after the holiday season, and University Police Chief Saul Chafin said he hopes the new system will be operational by January.
Under the current system, any time a student dials 911 or 456 from a university phone, the call is routed to NU’s emergency phone bank in the UP headquarters at 1819 Hinman Ave. But state law requires that all 911 calls go to a state-authorized Public Safety Answering Point, and the UP center does not meet those requirements.
The new system will route all on-campus 911 calls to the Evanston Police Department headquarters, 1454 Elmwood Ave., while all 456 calls still will go to UP. Calls to 911 should be made for fire or ambulance emergencies, while all police-related calls still should go to 456, Chafin said.
“We gotta be happy with the fact that we got a big piece of the pie,” he said.
Currently, UP routes all emergency phone calls — such as a fire or an injury requiring an ambulance — to Evanston’s fire department. UP handles all non-emergency calls.
Administrators have said they hoped the board would change the current system as little as possible. Vice President for Business and Finance Eugene Sunshine said Friday that UP cars often would lead ambulances and fire trucks to on-campus accidents.
“Our main concern was the students,” Chafin said. “We know the campus better than anybody. We have trained personnel here for years who know how to get to spots on campus right away.”
The change comes after the ICC upgraded standards for PSAPs statewide. In 1991, the ICC mandated that all 911 calls had to go to state-authorized PSAPs.
The board also voted to make UP a secondary PSAP, requiring NU Information Technology to install new phone lines and equipment in the UP phone bank. The UP phone bank would have to be able to contact EPD squad cars, fire trucks and ambulances.
Another alternative the board considered was to make UP a primary PSAP, allowing all calls to continue to go to UP. Chafin said that would have been the preferable choice, but they were happy to be handling all of the police calls.
“Whether we were going to be the primary or secondary (PSAP), we’re going to spend the same amount of money,” Chafin said. “The fact that we can continue to handle emergency police calls, … it’s the best of both worlds to at least have that.”
NU will shoulder most of the financial burden for the changes, Moran said, including the costs of installing high-speed phone connections between the university and Evanston’s 911 center, and improving the UP phone bank. He said the board hadn’t discussed any specific costs yet.
“I would not expect the financial burden to fall on the city,” Moran said.
Moran also said the increased number of 911 calls would not be too heavy a burden for the city’s 911 center to handle.
“Our current setup should be able to handle the increased number of calls without great difficulty,” he said.
