SMITHFIELD — Johnston County took center stage in a recent demonstration that successfully routed live 911 calls from North Carolina to Washington, D.C., highlighting new capabilities in Next Generation emergency communications.
The first-of-its-kind exercise sent North Carolina calls across state lines over North Carolina’s Emergency Services IP Network (ESINet), a Next Generation 911 technology designed to enhance resilience, interoperability and data sharing during emergencies.
During the demonstration, 911 calls originating in Johnston County were routed through ESINet to Washington, D.C., where Johnston County telecommunicators answered them inside a mobile command center known as THOR (Tactical Homeland Operations Response). Telecommunicators in D.C. remotely processed the calls while telecommunicators in Johnston County simultaneously handled dispatch operations.
The exercise demonstrated that Johnston County can maintain emergency call operations even if a disaster, cyber incident or other disruption prevents staff from working inside the County’s communications center…