State officials concerned about diversion of 911 fees
State rep: Only $5.4M of $15M collected is used to aid system
CRANSTON — This week, state Rep. Robert Lancia hosted a summit on the state’s E-911 Emergency System at the Cranston Central Library that was attended by first responders, members of the medical community, and local and state officials to discuss the impact of the state’s diversion of 911 fees.
Rhode Islanders with landline phones pay a $1 fee per month for the 911 service, and people with cell phones also pay a $1 fee per month in addition to a fee of 26 cents for geolocation services, said Lancia, a Cranston Republican. The state collects rough- ly $15 million in fees each year as of late for the E911 system, but only about $5.4 million actually goes back to the system. The remaining funds are placed in the state’s general fund and are used for other purposes. According to Lancia, the state placed the 911 system under the public safety department back in 2009. He said he’s been submitting bills to abolish the 911 fee since he began his term in office.
According to FCC Commissioner Michael O’Reilly, Rhode Island diverted about 60 percent of its 911 fees in 2017, based on data compiled by the organization.
“Many of you would not be surprised to learn Rhode Island is the second-largest diverting state behind only New Jersey in terms of overall amount and percentage,” said O’Reilly.
He said the FCC documents the 911 fee diversion practices of different states, who are currently able to self-report the information to the FCC. Not all states are honest in this process.
“The commission’s findings over the years paint a disturbing picture,” he added. “Over the last nine years, 21 states and one territory have self-reported sending 911 funds to other purposes for one year or more. Ten states and six territories failed to submit information to the commission at least once.”
O’Reilly called the diversion of 911 funds an “appalling practice,” and said FCC Chairman Ajit Pai has spoken publicly against it. He offered several potential solutions for the issue, including things like defining the functions diverted fees can be used for and preventing providers from being able to charge the fee unless it goes directly to the 911 system.
“We shouldn’t have to fight to make sure 911 funding goes to the purpose it was intended,” O’Reilly said. “We shouldn’t have to explain the increased risk that this behavior exposes the American public in the worst moments of their lives. We have an obligation to call out states that are effectively stealing needed funds from public safety and using them for other purposes.”
He later added: “Diversion is diversion, even if a little bit goes to meritorious functions.”
Cranston Mayor Allan Fung called the practice of diverting 911 funds “unconscionable.”
"This dollar could be used in so many critical, vital ways to help provide better service to our residents,” said Fung. “All of us here will send a message to our governor and this administration that what they have been doing was wrong from day one.”
Members of the medical community also spoke against 911 fee diversion, including Dr. Catherine Cummings, president of the Rhode Island Chapter of the American College of Emergency Medicine.
“We’re trying to do what’s right for the citizens of Rhode Island,” said Cummings. “When we talk about a 911 dispatch we’re talking about doing things that actually save lives,” she said. “We can make the entire system better.”
Cummings and others in the medical field advocated for training dispatchers to walk callers through CPR — to try to keep someone alive in time for emergency medical personnel to arrive on scene.
“On average it takes about six minutes for a rescuer to arrive,” said Dr. Joseph Lauro. “While this person is laying there they are dying, and in that six minutes we could be doing something instead of sitting and waiting — de- creasing the chance of survival by 10 percent every minute.”
By having someone at the scene perform CPR, he said, survival rates move as high as 62 percent.
State Sen. Elaine Morgan told a story of an incident that happened last year. She said a constituent, a doctor, and his father were building a home in Richmond when a pulley broke and injured the doctor. His father called 911 and got a busy signal and hung up the phone. As he created a tourniquet for his son’s injury, 911 returned his call with unfamiliar number.
“In an emergency situation, who is going to answer a random phone call,” said Morgan, a Hopkinton Republican. “I think we have a big need for betting our system and not diverting. Less than half of what is collected is going to 911, and that’s unacceptable.”
Coventry Fire District Chairman Frank Palin also provided his thoughts on the issue — noting that the town of Coventry is the largest community in the state by square mile and it can be difficult to access victims in emergencies. He explained that Coventry has many different types of communities from suburban to rural farm land in the western end of town.
“With the current system about 70 percent of calls that come in are from mobile phones,” Palin said. “They don’t have the GPS capacity to let our dispatcher know where.”
He said he was told a story about an incident that happened this past summer on the bike path, which is 15 miles long. Someone had broken their leg on the path, but there were no nearby landmarks to identify their location. Palin said officials in both his district and Western Coventry used ATV’s to travel down the bike path until they located the person who was injured.
“It was a tremendous delay versus a system that could be seamless,” he said. “I’m a nurse practitioner. I know what minutes mean when it’s a heart attack. We have to get this done now. Governor, shame on you for putting us on the list of shame with the FCC.”
In a statement the same night as the summit, Gov. Gina Raimondo said members of the Rhode Island State Police and staff from the E-911 program talked with O’Reilly earlier that day before he took a tour of the state’s E-911 facility.
Raimondo’s press secretary, Josh Block, said during the meeting officials “provided historical context about E-911’s funding practices,” including information about legislative action taken in 2000 to eliminate a dedicated funding account for the system. This legislation established the practice of allocating 911 telecommunication fees to the Rhode Island General Fund and to the state information technology fund, according to Block.
He pointed out that Raimondo gave a directive earlier this year asking the Department of Public Safety to fill all remaining vacancies at E-911 and says that since then the department has hired five new employees. This department is currently recruiting and “expects to hire additional telecommunications professionals this spring.”
“Rhode Island's E911 response time is faster than national standards recommended by the National Emergency Numbers Association (NENA),” Block added.
He said the state is on track to launch “Next Generation 911” later this year, which will allow Rhode Islanders to text 911 if they are unable or unwilling to call.