Centralized Dispatch, Local Consequences: Public Safety Answering Point (PSAP)

For two decades, the United States federal government has pursued policies to improve the cost and efficiency of emergency response. The role of Public Safety Answering Points (PSAPs), the 9-1-1 call centers that dispatch emergency services, are central to timely response, especially in rural communities where median ambulance response times are longer, and rural residents face a higher likelihood of dying before they arrive at a hospital than urban residents. Policymakers contend that PSAP closures and consolidations do not affect public safety, and our preliminary analysis of national call handling and response time data is consistent with this view. However, we also observed greater variability in call handling and response times in rural areas, suggesting context-specific risks that may not be obvious in large datasets. This project will provide a deeper assessment of PSAP closures and consolidations using qualitative data. The project team will conduct interviews, focus groups, and site visits in counties from four states with higher-than-average rural PSAP closures, representing all four census regions. Given the high priority of PSAP consolidations within national policy, and the importance of pairing consolidations with the implementation of advanced call handling technology, these initial findings fill an important gap in the literature by providing the first national assessment of the impact of PSAP closures and consolidation.