Now that you’ve cleared you head of the image of a car (provided you’re old enough to get the reference), what will the PSAP of 2030 really look like? Chris Carver, Cody Post and Buck Mims joined forces to tackle that very question. We don’t often think about what’s to come because we focus on what must be accomplished now. There isn’t a slot on our calendars where we have written “figure out where I’m going.”

Mapping out your future includes evaluating your past. For example, think about your smartphone. You didn’t have that iPhone in 2006, and you didn’t have an iPad in 2010.  The future PSAP will evolve away from voice transfers. The future includes sensors, cameras, AI, geospatial routing and dynamic queuing. Phone calls may become the LAST source of information provided to a PSAP.

The future builds resiliency and redundancy. The PSAP of the future must continue focusing on the human element of emergency call processing. How will new and evolving technologies affect PTSD for telecommunicators? Will technology make the job easier? How will the actions of your neighboring jurisdictions affect your operations? In essence, telecommunicators will be needed in 2030 just as they are needed today. Preparing for future PSAP operations requires making cultural changes that foster recruitment and retention.

Although we often struggle to meet the demands of our current 9-1-1 environment, we must make time to prepare for our future. What will the PSAP of 2030 look like… well, that depends on what we as a community start doing today.

By Aleisha Rucker-Wright