Mount Vernon Citizens Advisory Committee Learns About County 9-1-1 System

Mount Vernon's Citizens Advisory Committee (CAC) met last night, presenting information about Fairfax County's Department of Public Safety Communications (DPSC) 9-1-1 call center. Also, the Mount Vernon Officer of the Month discussed DUI procedure and rules.

The CAC, a brainchild of Mount Vernon Supervisor Gerry Hyland, meets every second Tuesday in the Mount Vernon Government Center. The Mount Vernon Police Department presents information about different topics and allows citizens to ask police officers questions about their community.

This month, Jessica Daza, a DPSC assistant supervisor, presented an in-depth look at how the Fairfax County 9-1-1 call center is run and operated. The 130-employee, 24/7/365 operation is responsible for over two million emergency calls a year, dispatches police, firefighters and ambulances to all of Fairfax County, and runs the missing person's alert system.

"We have 130 positions staffed at this time. We have four different squads, and every squad has about 40 to 42 personnel on the floor," Daza said. "We have two-day work squads and two-night work squads, and we rotate in. We work 12-and-a-half hour shifts."

Daza went on to dispel myths about 9-1-1 call centers and their operations. If you make a call from a cell-phone, 9-1-1 does not know your position like it would a land line. Daza cautioned Voice over Internet Protocol (VOIP) customers to update their contact info and suggested callers quickly give their address in case the call in disconnected.

"If we hear something suspicious and you are disconnected, we will go off of latitude, longitude," Daza said. "It takes a long process, about three to ten minutes, but we always try to get there."

Daza revealed that a county in Alabama is currently testing a "text to 9-1-1" system. She was excited about the prospect and plans to track their progress as more information becomes available.

For the rest of the meeting, Officer of the Month Dan Spital accepted his certificate for a record number of DUI arrests and explained what happens during a field sobriety test.

Mount Vernon police have made about 500 arrests this year, with Spital responsible for 10 percent of the bookings. Though 2010's DUI arrests have already surpassed 2009 number, Capt. David Moyer isn't worried.

"If our DUI arrests are high, it's due to the dedicated night shift," Moyer said. "We're going to be going hard the next two months, especially with the holidays."

The next Mount Vernon CAC meeting will be on Dec. 14, at 7:30 p.m. and will feature a presentation about an explosive ordinance. Expect to see bombs, dogs and robots, oh my!