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1 2 2 | P a g e Good afternoon, Senator Clifford A. Joseph, Sr., Chairman, Committee on 3 Homeland Security, Justice, and Public Safety, other committee members, 36th 4 Legislature Staff, and those in the viewing and listening audience. 5 6 I am Ovid J. Williams, Assistant Director of the Virgin Islands Territorial 7 Emergency Management Agency (VITEMA) which has responsibility for the 8 -1-1 Emergency Communications Centers also known as Public 9 Safety Answering Points. With me today are VITEMA Deputy Director of 10 Operations, Bruce Kelly, and Deputy Director of Logistics, Asim Frett. We are 11 providing testimony to Bill No. 36-0031, sponsored by Senator Alma Francis 12 Heyliger, an act amending title 23 Virgin Islands Code, chapter 10, subchapter IV, 13 section 1073 14 liability for acts of negligence in the operation, administration or maintenance of a 15 911 service unless the acts are committed in a grossly negligent manner or are 16 17 18 Let me start my testimony with a review of existing key definitions which impact 19 Definitions 20 for which means the telecommunication system which provides the 21 user of the public telephone system the ability to reach a public safety answering 22 -1- . The second is which 23 means a functional division of a public agency which provides ambulance, 24 firefighting, law enforcement, medical or other emergency services, and the third 25 26 firefighting, law enforcement, medical or other emergency services. 27 28 3 | P a g e VITEMA operates two Public Safety Answering Points or PSAPS for 9-1-1 calls 29 or text messages. One PSAP is located on St Croix, serving the approximately 30 40,000 residents, businesses and visitors to St Croix and one on St Thomas, 31 serving the approximately 48,000 residents, businesses and visitors to St. Thomas, 32 St. John, and Water Island. During times of high-volume, requests for 9-1-1 33 service, each PSAP can answer requests for the other, but can only dispatch first 34 responders via the Government radio trunking system to fire, police, emergency 35 medical services, or rescue, from the originating call PSAP district. By design, in 36 the US Virgin Islands, a 9-1-1 service call or text does not go directly to fire, 37 police, emergency medical services, or rescue, but rather, it is routed through one 38 or multiple telecommunications carriers, ultimately to a VITEMA PSAP. In the 39 instances of mobile phones, a call is routed first to a cell tower with the strongest 40 - 41 1-1 over the internet or Wi-Fi are not guaranteed to reach VITEMA PSAPs, as the 42 request is routed using the phone s registered address, which may or may not be in 43 the US Virgin Islands. Text messaging to VITEMA PSAPs is successful only 44 through mobile cell providers and not over the internet. 45 46 Private telecommunications providers operate, maintain, and administer, all aspects 47 of connecting a 9-1-1 service call from a phone, land line or mobile, to the 48 VITEMA PSAPs. In rare instances where the call path fails due to hardware or 49 software recognized at the PSAP, call can be answered at the alternate center. If 50 the outage is expected to last more than 60 minutes. VITEMA initiates a switch to 51 secondary lines install at both 9-1-1 call centers until the issue is resolved. An 52 important note is that VITEMA is not notified by telecom providers when service 53 4 | P a g e is impacted outside that of equipment connected to VITEMA PASPs, such as cell 54 tower outage or other service interruption. 55 56 Pursuant to FCC Order No. 24-73 relative to 911 outage notifications to Public 57 58 Emergency Management Agency (VITEMA), effective April 15, 2025, Originating 59 60 VITEMA as soon as possible but no later than thirty (30) minutes of an outage. In 61 62 notification to provide additional material information through the time of 63 resolution. The FCC Order requires OSPs to create and maintain an accurate, up to 64 date contact list for the purposes of notifying PSAPs of service outages. 65 66 In a few instances, when there have been longer 9-1-1 service outages, VITEMA 67 generates a mass message notice for the impacted district using its Alert VI to 68 subscribers, powered by Everbridge which provides event critical management 69 services, informing of the service outage and providing local police, fire, and 70 emergency medical services numbers to call directly for assistance. During this 71 down time, any calls or texts using 9-1-1 would not be received or answered by the 72 PSAPs. Once 911 service has been restored, another Alert VI message is sent by 73 VITEMA, informing that 9-1-1 has been restored. An important impact of calling 74 the local numbers during the time of outage, is that, unlike calling the 9-1-1 PSAP, 75 none of the calls are recorded. When contacting the VITEMA 9-1-1 PSAP, all 76 calls and texts are recorded on the Computer Aided Dispatch / Record 77 Management System. 78 5 | P a g e The obvious impact of losing any 911 service is that public safety agencies and 79 private safety entities are not aware of the emergency and once they become aware, 80 are delayed in their response time. 81 As Bill No. 36-0031 proposes, during these 911 service outages, all emergency 82 services are unaware or at their best delayed in their life saving efforts, and as a 83 result, any public safety agencies or private safety entities should be exempt from 84 liability for acts of negligence in the operation, administration or maintenance of a 85 911 service unless the acts are committed in a grossly negligent manner or are 86 committed with willful intent. 87 VITEMA fully supports Bill No. 36-0031. Thank you, Senator Clifford A. Jospeh, 88 Committee Chairman, for the opportunity to provide testimony to this bill. We are 89 prepared to answer any questions members of this committee may have at this 90 time. 91