Frequently Asked Questions

9-1-1 is the number most people in the United States call to get help in an emergency. They call this number when the police, fire department, or emergency medical services are needed. Your call is routed to the appropriate 9-1-1 Center where specially trained personnel will answer your call. Based upon the nature of your call, Center personnel will dispatch the necessary responders. The 9-1-1 System makes an important difference in our communities everyday. It is your first source of help in time of crisis and it can mean the difference between life and death. When used properly, 9-1-1 saves seconds and those seconds can save lives.

Enhanced 9-1-1 is a term used for the system that selectively routes an emergency call to the appropriate Public Safety Answering Point (PSAP) based on the valid address of the caller, automatically displaying the caller’s telephone number, address, and the registered subscriber name. Until 2004, North Dakota’s PSAPs were only able to receive this information from traditional landline telephones (example: your home or business telephone). Now, all North Dakota PSAPs are capable of receiving similar enhanced information from wireless devices such as cell phones and voice over internet protocol (VoIP) devices. Wireless Enhanced 9-1-1 is a term used for the system that routes an emergency call to the PSAP based upon the location of the tower handling the emergency call. Phase I of this system provides the 9-1-1 telecommunicator with the telephone number of the caller and the location of the tower handling the call. Phase II of the system provides actual coordinates (latitude / longitude) of the caller’s location that the PSAP uses to dynamically display on an electronic map. The futuristic view of the Wireless Enhanced 9-1-1 system is Phase III that would provide an elevation to account for calls made from within multi-story buildings in urbanized areas. Wireless Enhanced 9-1-1 services are possible because of technological improvements made by the wireless carriers, traditional telephone companies, and the PSAPs to pass and receive that information. In North Dakota, the actual phone used to make the 9-1-1 call must have a GPS chip that communicates with satellites orbiting the earth to determine the caller’s location. The FCC requires that where Phase II information cannot be determined, the call must be routed to the PSAP with Phase I information.

By a vote of County Electors, each household or business pays a $1 per month fee for 9-1-1 service on each telephone line that appears on their phone bill. There is no per-call charge for calling 9-1-1. However, ambulance services dispatched through 9-1-1 may charge for taking someone to the hospital. The Burleigh County Commission adopted a resolution in July, 2001 extending the $1 fee requiring that all subscribers to cellular phone service in Burleigh County pay a $1 fee per month to their service provider which is then submitted to Burleigh County. All funds collected for 9-1-1 are forwarded to the County Treasurer. NDCC allows a 9-1-1 fee to be collected up to $1.50 per subscriber line. Burleigh County currently remains at $1.00. Additional funding for the overall operation of a public safety answering point comes from general funds of counties and cities as the tax collected on devices capable of accessing 9-1-1 does not cover the cost of the overall operation (which includes the dispatch and ongoing responder communications involved with responding to emergency calls).

The Central Dakota Communications Center (CenCom for short) was established on January 1, 2016 and replaced the Bismarck / Burleigh County Combined Communications Center and added the City of Mandan to the consolidated operation. CenCom operates 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and is responsible for answering all 9-1-1 and non-emergency calls. CenCom personnel dispatch police, fire, emergency medical and other services for the cities and communities of Burleigh County and also the City of Mandan. CenCom has eight identical workstations, providing public safety communications services for the:

• Bismarck Police Department
• Mandan Police Department
• Burleigh County Sheriff's Department
• Lincoln Police Department
• Bismarck Fire Department
• Mandan Fire Department
• Metro Area Ambulance
• Bismarck Rural Fire Department
• Steele Ambulance
• Sterling Fire Department
• Wilton Fire Department
• Wilton Ambulance
• Airport Security
• Rural Metro Aircraft Rescue Fire Fighting (ARFF)
• Braddock Fire Department
• McLean Sheriff's Department
• Wing Fire Department
• Wing Ambulance