Pearl River County in need of address updates from residents for 911

Carolyn Nelson, manager of Pearl River County’s E-911 Addressing and Planning Department held a meeting to educate the public on the progress of the assigning map coordinate locations to addresses in a database. This process is also called “pegging”.

Nelson said there are approximately 1,146 county roads and 1,347 private roads in Pearl River County. She said about 280 of those roads are not yet pegged. Once this current project is complete, Nelson said that every structure in county will be pegged and have a description attached in the database.

Ruth Preston and Carolyn Nelson show a placard that can be used to display address

Ruth Preston, who works with Nelson, said it is the responsibility of homeowners to display addresses on their property for 911 purposes. Preston and Nelson showed an example of a placard that can be purchased to display the numbers at the address by attaching the placard on the mailbox (if present), the residence, or on a structure that is easy to see from the road servicing the address (residence).

Preston and Nelson shared an Address Update Form that asks for general information about an address as well medical information about residents at the address to assist first responders. They stated that if someone has lived in same residence for many years, there is still a need to update the information for those people currently living at a residence since the information could have changed. Updated information is critical for many reasons, especially, assisting first responders in what they many encounter at an address.

Carey Meitzler, who has been working as a consultant to Pearl River County, pointed out the importance of the addressing data to the future consolidate dispatch center for 911 that is soon to be implemented.

“The data is critical for safety for two reasons. One, accurate addressing allows first responders to get there faster without having to be concerned getting to the correct location. Secondly, this data is important for first responders being aware of what or who they may encounter at an address (residence),” Meitzler stated.

He explained how the new system will use a tool call Rapid SOS to collect the information (ANI/ALI) when a call is made to the dispatch. ANI (Automatic Number Identification) is the phone number passed to the PSAP (public safety answering points).

ALI (Automatic Location Identification) is the location detail (address along with any detail like building name or suite number or floor or room, etc.) associated with the ANI from the database where the PSAP is connected.

Meitzler said having correct address information will allow the dispatcher to relay information to the first responder about medical conditions of the occupants of an address (residence), whether someone who lists that address as their residence has any outstanding warrants for arrest, if the address has a history of previous criminal activity and other repeated activities (patterned), and other information about the residents.

Meitzler said information such as description of a residence and photos of a residence will also be used to provide as much in-depth data possible to enable the first responders to make good decisions while they are working a call.

Meitzler the consolidated dispatch will take approximately six months to get up and running once all of the agreements with the cities of Picayune and Poplarville, and Pearl River County are in place.

He closed by stressing the importance of residents taking time to fill in the data on the form presented by Nelson’s office.

“All the data, whether from the tax assessor office, the GIS mapping department, the court system, the 911 dispatch, they need correct address to make sure our citizens are served in a timely manner when they call 911 for help and to keep the first responders safe,” said Meitzler.