2006 Massachusetts Code - Chapter 6A — Section 18D. Public safety answering points; establishment; proposed municipal plans; statewide plan.

[Text of section effective in a city or town which accepts the provisions of 1990, 291.]

Section 18D. (a) Each municipality in the commonwealth shall establish, staff, and operate, in conjunction with one or more other municipalities or by itself, a public safety answering point on a twenty-four hour a day, seven days a week basis, in a manner and according to a schedule to be approved by the board. Each such municipality also shall submit for approval its recommendations for providing enhanced 911 service in such municipality along with any other required information to the board within twelve months of the promulgations of standards by the board.

(b) The board shall review each proposed municipal plan to determine if it meets the requirements of law, and the technical and operational standards established by the board. The board shall require primary public safety answering points to display automatic number identification, automatic location identification and may require other enhanced 911 features that are or may become available; provided, however, that the purchasing and installation costs of any additional mandatory enhanced 911 features shall be the responsibility of a telephone company as provided in section seven. The primary public safety answering point shall be designed according to the plan as specified in subsection (c).

(c) The board shall develop, not later than eighteen months after the promulgation of standards, a statewide plan for the implementation and maintenance of enhanced 911 service. Such plan shall include the following:

(1) A division of the commonwealth into geographical segments. An enhanced 911 system shall be established for each municipality or county, or by groups of municipalities or counties, as specified by the board.

(2) An implementation schedule, developed after consultation with telephone companies, for the sequence of converting to enhanced 911 systems.

(3) A designation within each enhanced 911 system, of the municipalities and the public safety agencies within such municipalities, to serve as the primary public safety answering points. In all cases, the recommendation for the primary public safety answering point locations shall be for existing public safety agencies and, whenever possible, for the buildings at which they customarily operate. The board shall also evaluate the need for secondary public safety answering points in municipalities which have requested them. It shall be the responsibility of the board to make the final determination regarding the total number and location of primary public safety answering points.

(4) The board shall, no later than September thirtieth of each year, review the existing configuration of primary, secondary and ringing public safety answering points, and develop changes or recommendations for change by December thirty-first of each year; provided, however, that any recommendation respecting the provision of enhanced 911 service that would result in aggregate expenditures of five hundred thousand dollars or more in a calendar year by a telephone company shall require the approval of the department of telecommunications and energy.