TRANSFORM911Blueprint Chapter One

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Introducing Transform911

Across America, at least 240 million calls are made to 911 each year. Many of these result in timely responses from a dedicated group of 911 professionals to medical emergencies, fires, and serious crimes in progress. This everyday excellence—24 hours a day, 365 days a year—is a remarkable, often lifesaving accomplishment. Indeed, 911 professionals are true first responders.

Fundamentally, the only thing most people in the United States know about the 911 system is to call it in an emergency,[1] or when you are simply out of options to solve the issue at hand.[2] The levels of systemic complexity are hidden from view and from consideration, as is the dedicated 911 professional workforce; 911 doesn’t enjoy the broad public recognition that other first responder systems have; it is often conflated with policing.[3] As we will describe and offer solutions for, that 911 is under the radar screen, which has impacted research, reform, funding, staffing, and evolution of the system. This has profound implications for 911 delivering on its promise, impacting the health and wellbeing of people across America.

Mismatches between need and response confound communities and responders alike. Existing data indicate that most 911 calls are not related to a crime in progress, yet they still elicit a police response (this will also be explored in subsequent sections). As a result, police spend much of their time responding to low-level and non-criminal incidents that do not amount to public safety or health emergencies. Not by choice, police officers have become first responders to all manner of societal ills, including family and mental health crises, conflicts in schools, and “quality-of-life” offenses such as public intoxication and panhandling. This “police-first” emergency response model may exacerbate harm and perpetuate distrust in the justice system among many communities—especially those of color.

Instead, Transform911 envisions a 911 system that equitably and reliably increases access to wellbeing for those who need emergency assistance, the professionals who staff 911, and those deployed to respond. We build on the extraordinary and positive innovations in the field to address the challenges and inequities that are within our reach and control, recognizing that the change we envision cannot happen without shifts in the systems and communities 911 serves.

We emphasize here that the recommendations being put forth by this blueprint support the increased need for police as well as other first responders, including 911 professionals, fire, and EMS, during the present rise in violent crime and, in particular, gun crime. In fact, these recommendations will increase the time that police and other first responders can dedicate to important problems like violent crime by reducing the time they spend responding to other types of calls, such as those involving mental or behavioral health crises. This not only helps to prioritize the most appropriate responses to where they are needed but also does so more efficiently and equitably.

How we came to this vision and the action plan for moving toward it, are described below.

A Note on Terminology

We employ language that may differ from standard vernacular used in the field. Namely, at the request of the Transform911 co-chairs and members, we use the term 911 professionals rather than telecommunicators. The workgroup co-chairs and members believe this term better reflects both the role and credibility of these key personnel, especially in light of the complexity of their jobs and the distinct and invaluable role they play in society. Wherever possible, we similarly refer to 911 call centers as Emergency Communications Centers (ECCs), a term favored by many 911 professionals in lieu of the more traditional term, Public Safety Answering Points (PSAPs).

Transform911 is focused on creating a comprehensive “first responder ecosystem” that includes 911 professionals, police, fire, and EMS responses, but not solely them. This term is being used alongside “alternative” responders in the recommendations that follow. This “first responder ecosystem”

  1. Includes responders who encounter the same or similar threats, challenges, and exposure to trauma that EMS, fire, and police do when responding to people in the midst of an emergency.
  2. Can be deployed by 911, 311, or can exist in the community for people in crisis to outreach directly though hotlines or other means.
  3. Includes responses from community-based organizations that provide treatment and support to people in crisis, people who experience homelessness, people who are in conflict with one another, and people with mental health and/or substance use challenges.
  4. Includes both virtual support and in-person responses.

Laying the Foundation

Transform911 builds upon years of complementary foundational work, both by members of the University of Chicago Urban Labs, Health Lab and Crime Lab, and other practitioners and researchers. These building blocks include knowledge on 911 itself, alternatives to arrest, data-driven justice, emergency crisis response, and understanding of low-level and misdemeanor arrests. Some of these contributions came from a seminal 911 convening on July 30, 2019, facilitated by current members of the Health Lab, who also conducted the related research.[4] The convening employed the time-honored roundtable format, wherein participants in an interdisciplinary consortium, who had not previously collaborated, generated new and promising policies and ideas to improve 911 service quality, worked toward organizational efficiency and community safety, and laid the foundation to affect meaningful change in this space.[5]

Several months later, the seeds of Transform911 began to grow, and an overarching goal came into focus. We sought to gather the best available evidence to explore how the nation’s 911 system can better prioritize health and safety, ensure the right responder is dispatched at the right time, and identify and disseminate best practices to improve first response based on existing and emerging research. Through this process, it was vital to us that we work toward several strategic objectives to build upon the success of that initial convening and the foundational research that preceded it; expand the conversation to a broader and more sustained collection of stakeholders, many of whom have been previously excluded from such dialogue; generate even greater momentum toward transformative change; and produce a fuller and more thorough, specific body of recommendations.

The University of Chicago Health Lab launched Transform911 in July 2020, supported by a diverse group of philanthropies, including Arnold Ventures, Microsoft’s Justice Reform Initiative, and the Sosozei Foundation. From the summer of 2020 through spring 2021, the Health Lab looked to 911 practitioners, scholars, and additional stakeholders such as municipalities, community members, advocates, and others, to establish an ambitious and novel approach to creating a community-informed, evidence-based blueprint for system transformation.

During this time, the demand to improve policing was spreading rapidly across the country, as evidenced by the cases of George Floyd, Elijah McClain, and Tamir Rice. While many in the general public do not differentiate between policing and 911, so calls for change tend to erroneously conflate these two systems, there was nonetheless a growing call to examine and improve the 911 system as well.[6] Parsing the role of the 911 system and the limited options for response and dispatch available to 911 professionals provides a window into options for transformation that could save additional lives and improve the wellbeing of 911 professionals often caught between callers and police.

Before diving into examples, however, it is important to stress that 911 professionals[7] have intervened and provided key information that has saved countless lives. At the same time, when there are opportunities to save more lives, we have a collective responsibility to learn and shift.

Tamir Rice, Elijah McClain, and George Floyd’s deaths came after calls to 911 were made by third parties attempting to dispatch police by inaccurate reports that the people involved, and ultimately killed, were engaging in criminal activities. Each case, however, illuminates a different challenge—and opportunity—facing 911.

Police are dispatched when there is a report of criminal activity. Minor and nonviolent situations can escalate quickly in these cases. This reality brought home to many through the May 2020 murder of George Floyd[8] by Minneapolis police officers. Police were dispatched because a $20 counterfeit bill being used to purchase cigarettes is a potential criminal offense. The resulting use of deadly force marked a turning point for the United States. What is less well known—and particularly salient for this effort—is that a 911 dispatcher, who witnessed Mr. Floyd’s murder in real time through live surveillance footage, contacted a police supervisor to express concern and reported, “You can call me a snitch if you want to[;] . . . all of them sat on this man,” and noted that the officers had failed to report that they were using force and to request the presence of a supervisor, which was in violation of departmental policy.[9] In other words, 911 professionals are often, as was the case here, unequipped to intervene when the downstream handling of a call is inappropriate and dangerous.

That police are dispatched as a default when there is a report of something that the caller may find concerning can also contribute to unwarranted and deadly escalation, even when there is no report of criminal activity and no report of danger or threat. The August 2019 case of 23-year-old Elijah McClain in Aurora, Colorado, is a case in point. A 911 caller reported someone “has a mask on” and is acting “sketchy”; this “might be a good or bad person” but was reported as not visibly carrying any weapons. Indeed, when the 911 professional asked directly if the caller had seen a weapon, the caller replied no. Police are the default responder dispatched to 911 calls for service believed to involve a potential crime or other law enforcement matter in Aurora, as in so many communities; the result is that Mr. McClain, who suffered from anemia and wore a face mask and other attire to stay warm when others may not have needed so many layers, was confronted by police. That he may not have heard their demands because he was listening to music and not doing anything wrong (so wouldn’t expect police to have any reason to confront him) led the police to escalate and involve EMS, who ultimately administered a fatal dose of ketamine.[10]

To be clear, 911 does not determine the actions of police dispatched to a scene. But the 911 system is relied on to provide information that primes the police for what they will encounter upon arrival. A 911 professional is reliant on the information provided by the caller. In the case of 12-year-old Tamir Rice, killed by police in November 2014, there were fundamental problems with the translation of information taken in and then relayed. A third party called 911 to report that someone, who was “probably a juvenile,” was in a park with a gun that was “probably fake.” In deploying the police to this call for service, the 911 call taker failed to relay these key pieces of information, which investigators subsequently ruled as contributing factors to the deadly police shooting.[11]

One uniting factor in these cases is that all three victims were Black males—two men, one boy. Data clearly demonstrate that biased behaviors exist in virtually all spaces, contexts, and people.[12] Empirical research that proves biases specifically in 911 is lacking, but there is no reason nor reasonable explanation for why 911 would be exceptional in this regard. First responders’—including 911 professionals’—actions may be impacted by implicit or explicit biases or may be triggering for others, as well. Evidence of people misusing the 911 system for discriminatory or biased purposes, knowingly or not, cannot be denied. This has been widely documented through video footage and personal accounts, including those described above. When this is coupled with a systemic default to dispatching police, as we will discuss more below, it means that deployment of lethal force is more common than warranted, jeopardizing the safety of all parties involved. Because of historical and continued potential harm, it is imperative to support our nation’s 911 professionals and embrace the fuller first responder ecosystem that offers a wide range of solutions.

Ignoring this reality creates fertile ground for biases to be amplified with each handoff and interaction; addressing bias is essential for saving lives. For while bias isn’t unique to the 911 system, the 911 system is unique in its ability to dispatch lethal force.

As awareness of the problem has grown, so too has recognition that answers are lacking. While incomplete conclusions can be drawn from human behaviors and viral videos, the current state of 911 offers very few data points and little consistency among standards, practices, and governance structures, as well as many other elements. Data and evidence from alternative strategies are incredibly scarce. As a result, local communities and stakeholders are teaming up to learn from and with each other, along with other interested parties. Such partnerships have yielded precious few promising existing options, and those that do exist are widely held up as exemplar models, absent a definitive evidence base.

As Health Lab began to organize this work, it was clear that interest levels were high. It was less clear, however, what exactly people hoped to learn, gain, and accomplish. In the absence of data or prior research to pull from, in January 2021, Health Lab developed and launched a public survey to assess key questions, opportunities, and challenges facing the field. In addition to answering questions on topics of consideration, respondents were asked to indicate if they were interested in participating in a workgroup and/or knew anyone who might be. The survey and a write-up summarizing the related findings are contained in Appendix C.

Creating a Blueprint for Change

This national context for change, coupled with the ground-laying work done in 2019 and 2020, fueled an ambitious strategy announced in spring 2021: Over a one-year period, Transform911 would engage 100+ stakeholders from around the country to examine the research, learn from promising practices and local pilots, and articulate a highly ambitious and highly reasoned consensus document—this blueprint for 911 transformation. This planning process would build new and important cross-field relationships, spark innovation, and inspire transformative change towards a 911 system that is an equitable gateway to wellbeing—a sense of safety, belonging, purpose, and influence—for callers, 911 professionals, and responders alike. We would draw on evidence and evidence-based practices when and wherever possible and recognize, learn from, and in the absence of empirical evidence, consider practice-based evidence to augment, complement, and inform these efforts.

The January 2021 survey, together with the prior 18 months of research and planning, led to Transform911’s workgroup and convening structures, as well as six vital levers for change: knowledge, action, and inquiry pertaining to 911 and emergency crisis response. As the workgroups dug into their charges, new questions emerged that helped refine and deepen these scopes. The themes and their related scopes are as follows:

  1. 911 Professional Career and Supports: Reviewed successful and promising efforts to improve investments in and supports for the 911 profession around skill set requirements, recruitment and retention, training and certification standards, occupational supports, opportunities for advancement, pay and benefit equity, mental health and wellness needs, and occupational reclassification/title change (e.g., change classification from “clerical/secretarial administrative” within the Bureau of Labor Statistics to “public safety” umbrella).
  2. Alternative First Responders: Reviewed successful and promising practices that provide people with appropriate medical, social service, and community resources to complement or supplant traditional police, EMS, and fire first-response, including responses to mental and behavioral health challenges, false alarms, animal control, some domestic violence/intimate partner violence calls, traffic, noise, and other concerns that often occasion 911 response.
  3. 911 Hotline Alternatives: Examined the strengths and limitations of crisis lines, or “hotlines,” including 211, 311, 988, and text lines, along with runaway, domestic violence, and suicide prevention hotlines, aimed at ensuring medical, social-service, and community alternatives to calling 911.
  4. Emergency Communications Center (ECC) Operations:[13] Reviewed 911 call-handling operations, including call-taking, triaging, and dispatching protocols. Examined ECC operational structures, accountability mechanisms, quality assurance, and stakeholder engagement strategies and assessed how related policies, procedures, and protocols best promote accessible, appropriate, safe, and equitable responses to requests for emergency services.
  5. 911 Governance: Reviewed governance structures and processes (including laws and state and local budget considerations/resource constraints, agency operational orders, organizational and decision-making structures, and reporting protocols) to ensure proper quality control, oversight, implementation, and operation of standardized 911 and alternative procedures.
  6. 911 Technology and Infrastructure: Reviewed how technology impacts 911 call systems’ capacity and practical effectiveness in identifying callers’ needs and addressing these needs through the right response, at the right time, by the right responder and seeks to identify specific areas in which improved technology infrastructure and resources might improve public safety and health outcomes.

These six levers, or “themes,” also defined the literature review scopes and provided the coding scheme for resources housed on the Transform911 website,[14] including but not limited to the “911 Initiatives” interactive visualization tool. The themes offered specific focus areas for each workgroup, as well as extensive literature reviews examining each area in depth. Published in February 2022, “Transforming 911: Assessing the Landscape and Identifying New Areas of Action and Inquiry,” comprises the literature reviews and outlines the outstanding research questions, which served as the foundation for the Research Agenda included in this blueprint.

The Workgroups

The Transform911 team supported the associated workgroups in order to activate a wide array of experts and stakeholders to inform content that has been curated in the current Transform911 Blueprint. This blueprint represents the culmination of the workgroups’ efforts and recommendations, as well as the input of the many reactors who shared their feedback and expertise.

In summer 2021, Transform911 recruited co-chairs for each workgroup. Co-chairs were selected to reflect the geographic and field diversity and professional stature necessary to ensure strong and actionable recommendations. Together, we designed and executed a series of public convenings, described below, to inform, engage, inspire, and mobilize diverse communities toward this goal. Our efforts were divided into six workgroups, headed by dedicated co-chairs. For our complete membership roster, including brief individual biographies, see Appendix B.

Workgroup co-chairs were empowered to select workgroup members through a variety of invitation and application processes. Every workgroup engaged in specific outreach to representatives of key associations and people who both expressed agreement and dissenting views in the inaugural convening (described below). Transform911 staff and co-chairs were in agreement that diverse and dissenting perspectives were essential to achieving the best outcome: an inclusive process informed by experts—including both practitioners and community members, who represent the users and base for the 911 system. These outreach and engagement efforts resulted in the involvement of 16 workgroup co-chairs and over 100 workgroup members. That these professionals found time for deep and ongoing engagement—amidst an ongoing pandemic, extensive national stress and dis-ease, and more— speaks to the salience of this issue, their commitment to the task, and their confidence that Transform911 is a vehicle for change.

911 is a system that impacts—and should be equally accessible to—everyone. The Transform911 workgroups therefore sought to engage and reflect a wide variety of personal and professional perspectives. Workgroup members are diverse in their geographies, fields, generations, race, gender, and perspective. They included 911 professionals and other first responders; community service providers, advocates, and activists; academics and other researchers; policymakers; and public health providers and experts. Moreover, the workgroups’ deliberations were informed by research evidence and best and emerging practices.

In partnership with the Transform911 co-chairs, the workgroups were formed in October 2021 and met through May 2022. Their work consisted of biweekly workgroup sessions, drafting and publishing comprehensive literature reviews to provide background and context to inform the recommendations, and the outlining and drafting of the initial recommendations, which were presented for public input at Transform911’s second convening (see below; the draft recommendations are contained in Appendix D).

Convenings and Other Feedback Sessions

To ensure even broader reach and transparent accessibility of the initiative, as well as to build momentum and anticipation in advance of the blueprint’s launch, three convenings, the Transform911 website, and a host of other interactive activities commenced.

Launched in April 2021, the Transform911 website (transform911.org) is a public resource that articulates our vision for an emergency response system that promotes public health, justice, and safety. It also contains an information/resource hub (transform911.org/resource-hub) containing the Transforming 911 Report, a research corner, a crash course on 911, and an interactive map of 911 practices and initiatives across the country. These resources were developed to complement workgroup activities and convenings, and to serve as a comprehensive and ongoing resource to the field.

The first convening, held on September 17, 2021, served as the project’s public launch to engage a broad audience, build excitement and communication, and lay Transform911’s foundation. More than 300 people from across the country came together to share innovations, ideas, concerns, and questions. One of the principal goals of this inaugural convening was to invite and recruit forward-thinking, collaborative leaders in 911 and related fields committed to positive transformation to join the workgroups. Recordings from the first convening are available on the Transform911 website.

The second convening was held over three days, March 2–4, 2022, and served as a venue for the workgroup co-chairs to present the workgroups’ draft recommendations for public input. The convening was purposefully designed to include an opportunity for meaningful public engagement, comment, and input. Recordings and input from the second convening are available on the Transform911 website. The recommendations and feedback received during and after the convening are summarized in Appendices D and E, respectively.

To gather additional feedback, immediately after the recommendations were presented publicly in March, they were posted to the Transform911 website (this version of the workgroup recommendations can be found in Appendix D), along with an online feedback form. Feedback was accepted through May 1, 2022. During that time period, Transform911 staff, co-chairs, and members also solicited feedback from identified reactors and stakeholders. The feedback received has all been carefully reviewed and considered in the development of this blueprint. Appendix E includes the feedback received, as well as analyses and syntheses presenting emergent themes across and between the recommendations that Transform911 research staff conducted to support the workgroup co-chairs’ and members’ review process.

Transform911 Partnerships

Several key organizational partners were involved in developing and facilitating the workgroups, as well as creating the processes and content that has resulted in the recommendations outlined in this blueprint. Individual workgroup contributors and short biographies are included in Appendix B. Organizationally and individually, the funders of this effort also served as key partners to transforming 911.

The Full Frame Initiative (FFI) joined Transform911 as a key partner in summer 2021 and has provided instrumental support and thought partnership throughout all of the efforts described in this blueprint, as well as its creation. FFI works toward one goal: a country where everyone has a fair shot at wellbeing. FFI brings national expertise in orienting systemic change around wellbeing; systems change processes; and in designing and driving strategies that lead boundary-spanning alliances to achieve national impact. Working in partnership, the Health Lab and FFI co-created the content and tools employed through the Transform911 Blueprint–generating process. FFI helped staff and supported each of the workgroups, generated content for the workgroup sessions and convenings, and significantly contributed to the design, facilitation, analysis, and other related activities that resulted in this blueprint and recommendations contained herein.

Code for America (CfA) became a key contributor to this work, with Health Lab and CfA together designing and launching the 2021 National Day of Civic Hacking, focused on transforming 911. This event, which took place on September 18, 2021, involved nearly 1,000 participants across the country gathering, coding, and analyzing 911-related data, as well as the sustained engagement of about 100 people beyond this day of action.[15] Moreover, three CfA senior staff members have served as Transform911 workgroup co-chairs.

Recognizing that the Transform911 Blueprint and related activities are a part of a larger and longer history around 911 and that we would benefit from that additional knowledge and context, we partnered with the Black Belt African American Genealogical and Historical Society (BBAAGHS). BBAAGHS is a nonprofit community-based organization that is dedicated to the study and exchange of information and ideas among people interested in African American genealogy, family history, and historic preservation in the 12 counties of Alabama’s Black Belt Region—Bullock, Choctaw, Dallas, Greene, Hale, Lowndes, Macon, Marengo, Perry, Pickens, Sumter, and Wilcox. On behalf of Transform911, BBAAGHS conducted primary research to create a people’s history of 911, which sought to assess the historical role of early 911 systems in Haleyville, Alabama—where the first 911 call was made—and the other areas of the state. BBAAGHS developed and applied a methodology and approach to conduct an oral history of 911, highlighting historical attributes—and their related successes, opportunities, and challenges—to the origins of 911 and experience across Alabama’s Black Belt. BBAAGHS’s research informed this blueprint and the related processes, and the methodology they developed offers opportunities for other jurisdictions and researchers to add to this evidence base.

RTI International and New York University School of Law’s Policing Project participated in early design efforts with the Transform911 team and continued to engage in this work through several key staff members of each organization serving on Transform911 workgroups, contributing ideas and content through this process. Research efforts that each organization has been engaged with—and early findings shared with Transform911—also helped establish the process and inform the recommendations.

Launching the Blueprint

The goal of this blueprint—and the related convening—is that it will immediately be acted upon by the developers themselves and will not be a report that sits on the shelf. This effort is truly “co-owned” collectively by the Transform911 workgroup co-chairs and members who developed the content and provided the ambition and expertise necessary to establish the recommendations presented here. The workgroup co-chairs and members have and, we expect, will continue to serve as vital ambassadors and leaders for the work and will help push for the implementation of the Transform911 Blueprint’s recommendations nationwide and in their communities.

On June 29, 2022, this blueprint was released publicly during a third Transform911 convening. The one-day public event was hosted both virtually and in person, in partnership with the Orleans Parish Communications District (OPCD) Emergency Communications Center (ECC),[16] in New Orleans, Louisiana, and was open to the public and all Transform911 stakeholders, funders, members of the media, and federal and state representatives and staff. The event’s primary goals were to unveil the blueprint, showcase relevant early examples of applied recommendations, and present plans and opportunities for implementation. This blueprint marks a milestone in the transformation process, invites others into changes that are already gathering steam via the workgroup’s consideration process, and also to raise the profile of the work.

 

[1] E.g., https://www.verywellhealth.com/how-911-works-1298365; https://www.cityofrochester.gov/article.aspx?id=8589935579
[2] Cynthia Lum et al., “Constrained Gatekeepers of the Criminal Justice Footprint: A Systematic Social Observation Study of 9-1-1 Calltakers and Dispatchers,” Justice Quarterly 37, no. 7 (2020): 1176-1198, https://doi.org/10.1080/07418825.2020.1834604
[3] The dearth of reports and research on this issue is a testament to the lack of attention paid to the 911 system as separate from policing.
[4]  S. Rebecca Neusteter et al., “Understanding Police Enforcement: A Multicity 911 Analysis,” Vera Institute of Justice, September 2020, https://www.vera.org/publications/understanding-police-enforcement-911-analysis.
[5] Ibid.
[6] The prominence and proliferation of these discussions and demands is evidenced by voluminous media coverage, national protests, and rapid development of initiatives that began during this time and have continued through the time that this blueprint was published. Several such early media accounts include: “Want to Fix Policing? Start with a Better 911 System” published in Vox by Roge Karma, August 10, 2020, https://www.vox.com/2020/8/10/21340912/police-violence-911-emergency-call-tamir-rice-cahoots; “What the Data Say About Police Brutality and Racial Bias—and Which Reforms Might Work” published in Nature by Lynne Peeples,  June 19, 2020, https://media.nature.com/original/magazine-assets/d41586-020-01846-z/d41586-020-01846-z.pdf; Wall Street Journal, The Saturday Essay, “The Long Reach of Racism in the U.S.: Despite Great Progress Across Two Centuries, Exclusion and Injustice Remain the Reality for Too Many Black Americans” by Orlando Patterson, published in the Wall Street Journal, The Saturday Edition, June 5, 2020, https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-long-reach-of-racism-in-the-u-s-11591372542.
[7] The term ”911 professionals” is used to include operators, call takers, call handlers, dispatchers, and managers in Emergency Communications Centers (ECCs) throughout the report. Workgroup members chose this term to emphasize the professional nature of these jobs.
[8] A convenience store clerk called 911 and reported that a customer, who later was reported to be 43-year-old George Floyd, had used a “fake” $20 bill to purchase cigarettes. This 911 call resulted in the deployment of Minneapolis police officers. Mr. Floyd was confronted by an officer at gunpoint, and then forcibly removed from his car, and cuffed with arms behind his back. Mr. Floyd fell to the ground. He was then both pushed in and removed from a police vehicle, ultimately, he was forced to lay face down on the pavement, where he was suffocated by police officers applying pressure to his neck, torso, and legs. Mr. Floyd’s death was ruled a homicide. 911 professionals were involved in this incident in multiple ways and at multiple times, including taking the original call, dispatching police and subsequent EMS and fire resources.
[9] Many media reports and investigatory materials extensively document this incident, see for example: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/31/us/george-floyd-investigation.html; https://www.cnn.com/2020/05/28/us/minneapolis-george-floyd-911-calls/index.html; and https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2020/06/16/george-floyd-911-dispatcher-had-concerns-over-cop-kneeled-neck/3197175001/.
[10] Many media reports and investigatory materials extensively document this incident; see for example: https://abcnews.go.com/US/independent-report-deadly-police-encounter-elijah-mcclain-released/story?id=76031754.
[11] The call taker was subsequently placed on leave. Many media reports and subsequent investigatory materials extensively document this incident; see for example: https://www.cleveland.com/metro/2017/03/tamir_rice_911_call-taker_susp.html.
[12] For a review of the research that does exist, what can be extrapolated, and where evidence is lacking, see Transform911: Assessing the Landscape and Identifying New Areas of Action and Inquiry, https://www.transform911.org/resource-hub/transforming-911-report/.
[13] These entities are often referred to as Public Safety Answering Points (PSAPs). However, a diverse array of other entities, including 911.gov, the National Institutes of Health, APCO International, the IJIS Institute, and many local emergency centers also use the term ECC. At the request of Transform911 co-chairs and members, this blueprint uses the term Emergency Communications Centers (ECCs) throughout.
[14] transform911.org/resourcehub; the Transform911 website and resource hub went live in April 2021 and September 2021, respectively.
[15] Additional information about the National Day of Civic Hacking and the contributions participants made is available at codeforamerica.org/national-day-of-civic-hacking/ndoch-2021/#:~:text=The%20theme%20for%20this%20year’s,systems%20work%20around%20the%20country.
[16] Orleans Parish Communications District ECC is the 911 Center that serves New Orleans, Louisiana.

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