Pennsylvania § 5304 - Counties.

§ 5304. Counties.

(a) Powers and duties.--Each county shall have the following powers and duties in relation to a 911 system:

(1) To ensure the provision of a 911 system in the county's respective jurisdiction. A county may provide a 911 system to the county's jurisdiction through participation in a regional 911 system.

(2) To develop, maintain or adopt a 911 plan for the county and submit the plan to the agency for review.

(i) The plan shall be reviewed and updated at a frequency prescribed by the board.

(ii) A county may adopt the 911 plan of a regional 911 system if the county is a participating member of that regional 911 system.

(3) To cooperate with the agency, the board and the Pennsylvania State Police.

(4) To comply with the guidelines, standards and reporting requirements established by the agency.

(5) To execute all contracts, agreements, mutual aid agreements, cross-service agreements and all other documents necessary to implement its 911 plan.

(6) To designate a 911 coordinator for the county who shall develop and submit a plan for the implementation, operation and maintenance of a 911 system.

(7) To cooperate with the agency and board in the preparation and submission of the 911 system plan.

(8) To cooperate with the Pennsylvania State Police. Subject to subparagraphs (i) through (iii), a county that utilizes ANI/ALI database services shall, upon request of the Commissioner of the Pennsylvania State Police or the designee of the commissioner, provide authority to access all ANI/ALI database information relating to 911 calls for emergency services, whether the database is held by the county or by a commercial entity, following the established procedures of the database owner. The following shall apply:

(i) In order to ensure that no county or PSAP experiences degradation of service or additional costs as a result of complying with this subsection:

(A) the Pennsylvania State Police shall provide, at its cost, any equipment, computer software or telecommunications equipment or services, exclusive of recurring personnel costs for county personnel, that are necessary to enable its access to any ANI/ALI database information; and

(B) all means of access must be approved by the county, PSAP, the agency and the Pennsylvania State Police before the county is required to authorize or provide the access. In the event of a dispute between the Pennsylvania State Police and a county or PSAP regarding approval by the county and PSAP, the dispute shall be mediated by the Office of Information Technology of the Commonwealth's Office of Administration. The Office of Information Technology may bring in a Commonwealth mediator from the Office of General Counsel to provide assistance in resolving the dispute.

(ii) The ANI/ALI database information to which access is authorized or enabled under this paragraph or section 5304.1(a)(3) (relating to Pennsylvania State Police) shall be used only in providing emergency response services to a 911 call. A person who uses or discloses the ANI/ALI database information under this subparagraph for any other purpose commits a misdemeanor of the third degree.

(iii) Nothing contained in this paragraph shall be construed to impose on providers any obligations beyond those created by applicable Federal Communications Commission orders and regulations. Public agencies, counties, PSAPs and wireless providers shall not be liable to any person for errors in any of the ANI/ALI database information which may be accessed by or provided to the Pennsylvania State Police under this paragraph.

(9) To comply with reporting requirements established by the agency.

(10) To make reasonable efforts to ensure required geographic information system (GIS) information is available and maintained to support next generation 911 call delivery. The following apply:

(i) Counties must cooperate with each other to develop the PSAP boundary, emergency service boundary, provisioning boundary and road centerline data sets.

(i.1) Counties must develop, publish, maintain and provide the required GIS layers that meet the Pennsylvania NG911 GIS Data Model published by the agency, including developing or cooperating with the applicable addressing authorities to develop site and structure address point data to support NG911 call delivery.

(ii) Counties shall share GIS data needed to support geospatial call routing.

(11) To utilize the next generation 911 call delivery services procured by the agency and cooperate with the agency, next generation 911 service provider and other applicable entities to help identify the cause of next generation 911 service impacting issues and responsibility for resolution until those items are identified.

(12) To maintain compliance with cybersecurity standards published by the agency.

(b) Persons outside county.--(Deleted by amendment).

(c) Cities of the second class, second class A and third class.--(Deleted by amendment).

(June 29, 2015, P.L.36, No.12, eff. Aug. 1, 2015; June 28, 2019, P.L.142, No.17, eff. imd.; Nov. 18, 2024, P.L.1186, No.147, eff. imd.)

2024 Amendment. Act 147 amended subsec. (a)(7) and (8)(i)(B) and added subsec. (a)(10)(i.1), (11) and (12).

2019 Amendment. Act 17 added subsec. (a)(10) and deleted subsec. (c).

Cross References. Section 5304 is referred to in section 5304.1 of this title.