VOLUSIA COUNTY, Fla. — The Volusia County Council approved technology enhancements on Tuesday, Oct. 6, to assist 911 dispatchers handling medical, fire, and law enforcement emergencies. The authorization allows the county to implement the Priority Dispatch System for dispatchers within the Volusia Sheriff’s Office.
The system provides standardized protocols and technology to support call takers in assessing emergencies, establishing priority levels, and deploying appropriate public safety responses. During emergency calls, dispatchers will use system-guided questions tailored to specific circumstances to organize incident information and determine response needs.
The Priority Dispatch System uses protocols developed and maintained by the International Academies of Emergency Dispatch, an organization that establishes research-based standards for medical, fire, and law-enforcement emergency communications. According to the technology developer, the system is used by more than 4,000 emergency communications centers worldwide, including 160 of the 200 largest cities in the United States.
The system assists call takers in determining whether an incident requires a medical, fire, or law enforcement response, or a combination of multiple disciplines. It also helps dispatchers identify the appropriate level of response for individual incidents, distinguishing between calls that require specialized resources and those for which a more limited response is sufficient based on the reported circumstances.
The county and the Volusia Sheriff’s Office are working with the software developer on a phased implementation process. The rollout includes system configuration, integration, testing, and dispatcher training, with the technology expected to begin handling live calls in the coming months.
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