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As per the FCC, 911 calls must go to county-based PSAP (Public Safety Answering Points). 911 calls must be routed directly to 911 (and not to the local township or borough). Allegheny County is responsible for providing 911 service in their jurisdiction.
Section 506 of RAY BAUM’S Act, the Commission adopted rules to ensure that “dispatchable location” information, such as the street address, floor level, and room number of a 911 caller, is conveyed with 911 calls so that first responders can more quickly locate the caller. USCSD satisfies this requirement using a 3rd party program called "OfficeWatch". Our alerting system (OfficeWatch) sends a text message and an email that provides the building, room number, and location of the 911 call. With the next upgrade of the phone system, we will be required to "automate" the sending of this information to Allegheny County Dispatch.
USCSD Alerting
1. Crisis Alerting (Crisis Alert button on Avaya Desktop/Office phone). Phones in buildings with the Crisis Alert button will receive continuous beeping audible alerts displaying the phone extension that called 911. This alerting only happens in the building that made the call, for example, a 911 call at Baker will notify the Baker phone extensions that have the Crisis Alert button on their phone. This button does NOT make any emergency calls; it provides an alert if someone in the building calls 911 (It will show you the extension and name of the person who called 911). Crisis Alerting is activated when some dials 911 (it does not matter if the call is answered by 911 or if you hang up before 911 answers).
How to acknowledge the Crisis Alert and stop the beeping: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1SzVAFw-8CoSfP2HraRwscMmeq2TJ8E1y/view
Note: If you hang up before 911 answers, 911 sees that a call came in and will attempt a call back. Call back numbers in each building are routed to the main numbers in each building:
- DAB - 2286
- HS - 2236
- FC - 3000
- BO - 5000
- ST - 6000
- BA - 4000
- EI - 8000
911 will see the call coming from a 10 digit phone number that is associated with that building. Each building has a few 10 digit numbers (for redundancy) associated with their address. 911 will NOT see the extension that made the phone call. Numbers identified in the function column as "Trunk Group" or purpose "Voice":
2. Text Message/Email Notification (OfficeWatch). When someone dials 911, 9-911, 412-833-7500 or 412-833-7501 and the call is answered. Hang up calls or calls that do NOT connect will NOT send a Text Message/Email notification.
3. Elevators and Evacuation Systems notification. Elevators and Evacuation Systems must meet the Pennsylvania 24/7 monitoring requirement; if someone activates the elevator phone or pushes the button on an evacuation system, the call must be answered by someone 24/7. We meet this requirement by sending those calls directly to 412-833-7501 (USC Township Dispatch). Text messages and Email notifications are sent accordingly when these calls go out.
Elevator Extensions:
Fire Alarms
- Fire Alarms notify the USC Township Police via dedicated phone lines that are NOT connected to our phone system (as per fire code). No notifications are sent when the Fire Alarms call the USC Township Police (these phone lines are NOT connected to our phone system). Phone lines that are designated for fire alarms:
Phone Lines & Emergency Calling
- Special phone lines are installed at each building for 911 calling. 911 calls must come from phone numbers and addresses located at the physical building. We use a different phone provider for these phone lines (Comcast), so that it travels through a different infrastructure than our regular calls. 911 will see the call coming from a 10 digit phone number that is associated with that building. Each building has a few 10 digit numbers (for redundancy) associated with their address. 911 will NOT see the extension that made the phone call. Numbers identified in the function column as "Trunk Group" or purpose "Voice": https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/17O6SMcG4vr5Hta4pEcKChJGr5V6ed26smrYkugd7xtU/edit#gid=842934943
- If the Comcast phone lines are NOT working, the 911 call will travel through our main phone provider, Windstream. Windstream uses our Internet connection for its phone service. Our Internet provider is Allegheny Connect (Regional Wide Area Network that connects all the schools in Allegheny County). If the Allegheny Connect network is down, 911 calls will use our backup Internet provider, Crown Castle.
