CUMBERLAND — Technology within emergency communication centers across the country and locally continue to adapt by adding tools and services that get police, fire and emergency medical resources to callers faster and more efficiently.
“Locally, our center’s average time to answer a 911 call is four to five seconds,” Allegany County Joint Communications Center Supervisor Jason Morgan said. “The national average is less than 10 seconds.”
Dialing 911 from a phone is still preferred, according to Morgan, but if that isn’t possible the center can receive 911 text messages.
After texting 911, the sender will get a response and began answering questions that are relayed back to the communication center so that appropriate help can be started, according to Morgan.
A second, less commonly known feature of the computer-aided dispatch system gives the communication specialist the ability to access a caller’s camera to see the emergency scene live.
“While the caller is on the phone, we can send a text message with a link to the caller’s phone,” Morgan said. “The caller clicks on the link, and it provides us with a livestream of the scene.”
Morgan described several incident types that it is beneficial for communication specialists to see the scene, including large structure fires, vehicle crashes, major weather events and large-scale incidents involving trains or buses.
“Lost hikers and active assailant incidents are two additional,” Morgan said. “With a lost hiker, it would provide our center with a better description of where the hiker may be by providing visuals to the call taker with the hopes of a rescue occurring faster.”
Morgan also described an active assailant incident where if a person can safely use the camera on their phone to livestream, this information can be passed onto law enforcement or the incident commander.
“In that situation we never want to put anyone in harm’s way,” Morgan said. “We are always trying to get them to safety. We have the ability to make the screen of their phone black, but still have the video playing, so they aren’t noticed.”
More screen timeSitting in front of many screens, communication specialists have another tool called Prepared 911 that can assist with ensuring accurate and prompt information can be relayed to police, fire and EMS units.
“The system also generates an AI-assisted transcription of all incoming and outgoing calls,” Allegany County Joint Communications Center Chief Steve Shipley said. “…providing the specialist an extra set of eyes and ears when it comes to interrogating a caller.”
Prepared 911 provides translation services, not only via live audio translation for over 40 languages, but also text messaging in 200 languages, allowing the specialists to gather more accurate information, according to Shipley.
Helping first respondersA new application that interfaces with the CAD system called Chief 360 provides fire and EMS responders with vital information as soon as the communications center begins processing an emergency.
“Chief 360 interfaces with Motorola FLEX, the county’s CAD system, giving responders’ access to the call notes entered from dispatch, navigation, scene safety information, in addition to the ability for interdepartmental messaging,” Shipley said.
First responders began using Chief 360 in December 2025, according to Morgan.
The CAD also prefills information into EMS reporting systems required by the state and fire reporting software, allowing fire and EMS units to complete reports with much greater ease, Shipley described.
“Information such as call address, (responding) units and times will auto-full in the reports from Flex,” Shipley said.
Joint Communications CenterThe center handles all 911 emergency calls in the county, while answering calls for the sheriff’s office, Cumberland Police and establishing hospital consults for EMS clinicians in Allegany, Garrett and Washington counties.
The center handled over 17,000 fire and EMS calls in 2026, according to Morgan. During the same timeframe, dispatchers took nearly 16,000 calls for the sheriff’s office and approximately 29,500 calls for Cumberland Police.
After dispatching a fire or EMS call, the first due department has seven minutes to respond, according to Morgan. After that, the second due company is dispatched.
“There are exceptions to this,” Morgan said. “If the call type is determined to be a high priority call — such as a cardiac arrest or imminent childbirth being two examples — units have three minutes to respond and after that, the next due unit is started.”
The main center, located on Hudson Avenue in Cumberland, can have 10 communication specialists working at any given time and with the new CAD, the backup center on PPG Road can simultaneously be in operation if an incident would ever require it.
Morgan said that the communications center employs approximately 30 communications specialists that take the 911 call, provide pre-arrival information and instruction before police, fire or EMS units arrive and maintain contact with these units until the call is completed.