Current News

911

With all of the buzz about texting, the Tennessee Emergency Communications Board is working with all the 911 Districts in the State to get ready for the next generation 911. The concept of the next generation 911 equipment includes receiving text messages, images, emails and voice. Make sure you dial 911 for emergencies!

  1. 2014 News
  2. 2013 News
July 2014
On July 23, 2014, the Bristol Tennessee 911 District will cutover to the newest next generation 911 equipment.  The equipment is the Cassidian Patriot and Century Link will be doing to installation and maintenance.  In the next few months, we will also connect to the Tennessee statewide 911 network.  

April 2014
The Bristol Tennessee 911 and seven other 911 Districts in East Tennessee have jointly purchased the newest next generation 911 equipment. The Districts purchased two main controllers that they will share. By having two controllers, the eight East Tennessee District are providing a 911 system with built in redundancy at 1/8th of the cost to each District. This is a huge cost savings and provides an even better 911 system for the area residents.

Washington County, Johnson County, Unicoi County, Carter County, Sullivan County, Greene County and Kingsport, Tennessee are part of this new system. Bristol Tennessee 911 expects to go live on the new equipment in July 2014. None of the Centers will be able to accept photos or texts until possibly 2016.

Equipment
Equipment will be installing our new Cassidian next generation 911 equipment in July 2014. This equipment will be connected to a new Tennessee statewide 911 network. This new equipment, along with the new network, will provide better and more efficient service to our citizens. In addition, this new system has several layers of redundancy to ensure that if a citizen dials 911, the call will connect and be processed. We have not experienced any 911 outages in the City of Bristol for many years, and we have every intention of continuing that trend.