ST. LOUIS (KMOX) - St. Charles County will soon have faster 911 response times after announcing plans to modernize it's 911 emergency phone systems.
According to a press release by the county, St. Charles County will have a new system that will provide 911 dispatchers with the callers' location received directly from their wireless devices.
According to the county's Director of Emergency Communications Jeff Smith, the new system will not only allow dispatchers to more accurately see the location of the caller but also their elevation, which can help locate what floor someone is on in a burning building.
The new system costs $12 million and will be spread out over seven years. Funding for this upgrade comes from both the county and it's municipalities.
St. Charles' previous system was designed for use with landlines, and while it had been adapted to route wireless calls as best as possible, delays in locating callers was an issue.
The new system will come online in phases over the next 18 months between hardware and software upgrades.
911 dispatch time has become a growing issue around the St. Louis-area, with most notably only three dispatchers working a shift for the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department at one point in the last couple months. Officer shortages have been seen as the big reason for the problems.
Last week, KMOX talked to St. Louis Police Chief Robert Tracy about officer shortages, and Tracy seemed to downplay the shortages and said he classified them as 'isolated incidents.'
"When we have to move people around to protect downtown, protect people's rights under civil arrest, First Amendment Rights for free speech, we do move people around," Tracy said.