2017 South Carolina Code of Laws
Title 23 - Law Enforcement and Public Safety
CHAPTER 47 - PUBLIC SAFETY COMMUNICATIONS CENTER
Section 23-47-20. System requirements.

(A) Service available through a 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.

(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 a basic or enhanced 911 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) As a minimum, the 911 systems implemented in South Carolina must include:

(1) a minimum of two lines from each serving telephone central office to the enhanced 911 tandem (controlling central office). A minimum of two lines from the enhanced 911 tandem to the PSAP. The grade of service must have sufficient lines to ensure no more than one busy signal per one hundred calls;

(2) equipment to connect the PSAP to all law enforcement, fire protection, and emergency medical or rescue agencies, or both within the boundaries of the system;

(3) first priority to answering 911 calls;

(4) electronic recording of all 911 calls and retained for a minimum of sixty days;

(5) immediate playback capability of all 911 calls;

(6) equipment connected by dedicated telephone lines to all adjacent PSAP's where there is a telephone exchange not covered by selective routing;

(7) adequate physical security to minimize the possibility of intentional disruption of the operation. This includes equipment safeguards;

(8) standby emergency power to operate the PSAP during power failures;

(9) written operational procedures;

(10) a minimum of one telecommunication device for the deaf (TDD) available in each PSAP;

(11) capability to answer eighty percent of calls within ten seconds;

(12) 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) contingency plans for rerouting or relocating the PSAP in the event of a disaster or equipment failures;

(14) routing and capabilities to receive and process CMRS service and VoIP service capable of making 911 calls;

(15) telecommunication operators or dispatchers trained and certified by the Law Enforcement Training Council (Criminal Justice Academy). The Law Enforcement Training Council shall promulgate regulations to provide for this training. Expense of the training must be paid by the local government by which that person is employed and the department is authorized to establish and collect a fee for this training;

(16) all 911 lines have both audio and light indicators on incoming calls;

(17) 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) 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) 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) a designated person or 911 office staffed by a sufficient number of personnel to maintain data bases;

(21) an initial and continual plan for public education which must include the following:

(a) to make the public aware 911 is available;

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

(c) to make the public aware of the definition of an emergency;

(d) to make the public aware of what is a nonemergency.

(D) Enhanced 911 shall incorporate the following features:

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

(2) automatic number identification (ANI)-automatically displays the number of the caller's telephone at the PSAP;

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

(4) called party hold-enables the PSAP to control the connection for confirmation and tracing of the call;

(5) distinct tone-tone generated by equipment which alerts the PSAP personnel that calling party has disconnected;

(6) selective routing-will automatically route a predetermined geographical area to a PSAP serving that area regardless of municipal and wire center boundary alignments.

(7) All enhanced 911 systems must be configured so as to disallow subsequent search of the address data base.

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.

Code Commissioner's Note

At the direction of the Code Commissioner, the amendment to the subparagraph identified as (K)(15) was made to subparagraph (C)(15).

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".