South Carolina § 23-47-20 - System requirements.

§ 23-47-20. System requirements.

(A)(1) The Revenue and Fiscal Affairs Office shall be responsible for creating, updating, and implementing a comprehensive strategic plan, including operating standards for a coordinated statewide 911 system to address changing technology, services, and operating efficiency and effectiveness. The standards must be developed and updated with comments and recommendations from the South Carolina 911 Advisory Committee, local officials, service providers, and the public. The plan must be approved by the board and may be amended as necessary.

Service available through a local 911 system includes law enforcement, fire, and emergency medical services. Other emergency and emergency personnel services may be incorporated into the 911 system at the discretion of the local government being served by the system. Public safety agencies within a local government 911 system, in all cases, must be notified by the PSAP of a request for service in their area. Written guidelines must be established to govern the assignment of calls for assistance to the appropriate public safety agency. There must be written agreements among state, county, and local public safety agencies with concurrent jurisdiction for a clear understanding of which specific calls for assistance will be referred to individual public safety agencies.

(2) The Revenue and Fiscal Affairs Office may request written verification from PSAPs regarding compliance with current or updated standards and may develop policies to address noncompliance.

(B)(1) A 911 system must include all of the territory of the local government, either county, municipality, or multi-jurisdictional government. A 911 system may be an enhanced 911 system until the board establishes NG9-1-1 or another subsequent system.

(2) Public safety agencies that provide emergency service within the territory of a 911 system shall participate in the countywide system. Each PSAP must be operated twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week.

(C) At a minimum, the legacy 911 or NG9-1-1 systems implemented in South Carolina must include:

(1) for legacy, a minimum of two lines from each serving telephone central office to the enhanced 911 tandem (controlling central office) and a minimum of two lines from the enhanced 911 tandem to the PSAP. For both legacy and NG9-1-1, the grade of service must have sufficient lines to ensure no more than one busy signal per one hundred calls;

(2) for both legacy and NG9-1-1, equipment within the PSAP to connect the PSAP to all law enforcement, fire protection, and emergency medical or rescue agencies, as well as to emergency responders;

(3) for both legacy and NG9-1-1, first priority to answering 911 calls;

(4) for both legacy and NG9-1-1, electronic recording of all 911 calls that are retained for a minimum of sixty days;

(5) for both legacy and NG9-1-1, immediate playback capability of all 911 calls;

(6) for legacy, equipment connected by dedicated telephone lines to all adjacent PSAPs where there is a telephone exchange not covered by selective routing;

(7) for both legacy and NG9-1-1, necessary physical security to minimize the possibility of intentional disruption of the operation. This includes equipment safeguards such as key fobs and biometrics as well as cyber security safeguards to prevent Denial of Service attacks and general "hacking" of systems;

(8) for both legacy and NG9-1-1, standby emergency power to operate the PSAP during power failures;

(9) for both legacy and NG9-1-1, written operational procedures;

(10) for legacy and NG9-1-1, a minimum of one telecommunication device for the deaf (TDD) available in each PSAP;

(11) for both legacy and NG9-1-1, capability to answer ninety-five percent of calls within fifteen seconds and ninety-nine percent in forty seconds;

(12) for both legacy and NG9-1-1, coin-free dialing. Pay or coin telephones classified as such by a class of service code will be identified on the automatic location identification display in enhanced 911 systems;

(13) for both legacy and NG9-1-1, contingency plans for rerouting or relocating the PSAP in the event of a disaster or equipment failures;

(14) for both legacy and NG9-1-1, routing and capabilities to receive and process CMRS service and VoIP service capable of making 911 calls;

(15) for both legacy and NG9-1-1, telecommunication operators or dispatchers trained, or certified by the Law Enforcement Training Council (Criminal Justice Academy). The Law Enforcement Training Council shall promulgate regulations to provide for this training and/or certification. Expense of the training must be paid by the local government by which that person is employed. The Law Enforcement Training Council is authorized to establish, collect, and retain a fee not to exceed actual costs for this training or certification, or both;

(16) for both legacy and NG9-1-1, all 911 lines have both audio and visual indicators on incoming calls;

(17) for both legacy and NG9-1-1, a public safety agency whose services are available on the 911 system must maintain a separate secondary backup number for emergency calls and a separate number for nonemergency telephone calls;

(18) for both legacy and NG9-1-1, the primary published emergency number will be 911. The PSAP must have additional local telephone exchange service in addition to the 911 service. This nonemergency telephone number should be published directly below the "emergency dial 911" listing;

(19) for both legacy and NG9-1-1, 911 is furnished for emergency reporting only. Nonemergency calls, whether by the general public or agency employees, should not be made to the 911 system;

(20) for both legacy and NG9-1-1, a designated person or 911 office staffed by a sufficient number of personnel to maintain databases and 911 network;

(21) for both legacy and NG9-1-1, an initial and continual plan for public education, which must include:

(a) making the public aware 911 is available;

(b) making the majority of emergency calls received on 911 rather than the seven-digit emergency number;

(c) making the public aware of the definition of an emergency;

(d) making the public aware of what is a nonemergency;

(e) texting to 911 and other aspects of NG9-1-1 as they become available to the public; and

(22) for NG9-1-1, the requirements contained in this section shall apply to all manner of devices capable of communicating requests for emergency assistance to PSAPs.

(D) Enhanced 911 shall incorporate the following features:

(1) for legacy, automatic location identification (ALI)—automatically displays the addresses of the calling telephone during the course of the emergency call at the PSAP;

(2) for legacy, automatic number identification (ANI)—automatically displays the number of the caller's telephone at the PSAP;

(3) for legacy, central office identification—when a PSAP serves more than one central office, dedicated lines or trunks are used to identify each central office;

(4) for both legacy and NG9-1-1, called party hold—enables the PSAP to control the connection for confirmation and tracing of the call;

(5) for both legacy and NG9-1-1, distinct tone—tone generated by equipment which alerts the PSAP personnel that the calling party has disconnected;

(6) for legacy, selective routing—will automatically route calls from a predetermined geographical area to a PSAP serving that area regardless of municipal and wire center boundary alignments; and

(7) for legacy, all enhanced 911 systems must be configured so as to disallow subsequent search of the address database.

(E) All systems also must include applicable services identified in the strategic plan to ensure comprehensive and coordinated statewide operations in accordance with Section 23-47-20(A), including, but not limited to:

(1) integration and standardization of local mapping data; and

(2) aerial imagery services that will support the strategic plan and public safety on an on-going basis. Aerial imagery also may be shared for other local and state governmental purposes including, but not limited to, South Carolina Code of Regulations R117-1740.2.C.5.

HISTORY: 1991 Act No. 245, SECTION 1; 1996 Act No. 459, SECTION 50; 2006 Act No. 317, SECTION 5, eff May 30, 2006; 2008 Act No. 335, SECTION 8, eff June 16, 2008; 2010 Act No. 135, SECTION 2, eff July 1, 2011; 2019 Act No. 60 (H.3586), SECTION 2, eff May 16, 2019.

Effect of Amendment

The 2006 amendment, in subparagraph (C)(15), in the first sentence substituted "Law Enforcement Training Council (Criminal Justice Academy)" for "Criminal Justice Academy Division of the Department of Public Safety", and in the second sentence substituted "Law Enforcement Training Council" for "Department of Public Safety".

The 2008 amendment, in subparagraph (C)(15), substituted "South Carolina Criminal Justice Academy" for "Law Enforcement Training Council (Criminal Justice Academy)" in two places.

The 2010 amendment, in subsection (C)(14), substituted "routing and capabilities to receive and process CMRS service and VoIP service capable of making 911 calls" for "capabilities to have cellular phones routed to 911".

2019 Act No. 60, SECTION 2, rewrote the section, providing that the Revenue and Fiscal Affairs Office is responsible for creating and updating a comprehensive strategic 911 and NextGen 9-1-1 system and revising the standards that govern the operation of those systems.