Barbara Neal, executive director of the Enhanced 911 Board and co-chair of the Public Safety Communications Task Force, told the House Energy and Digital Infrastructure Committee on Feb. 7 that the task force has completed an inventory of Vermont dispatch centers and will release a draft system-planning report for public review.

The task force, created by Act 78 (2023), was "tasked with the planning and implementation of a reliable, secure, and interoperable statewide public safety communication system," Neal said. The inventory and a forthcoming system-planning report aim to present multiple options for how Vermont dispatch services could operate going forward.

The inventory collected by Mission Critical Partners and project management support from Televate includes site visits to all 37 dispatch centers in use statewide and responses to a detailed questionnaire covering cybersecurity, radio systems and governance. Neal said the inventory will be part of an analysis that must be redacted where it contains sensitive security information before public release. She said the system-planning draft will be available for public review Feb. 19 and that the task force expects a roughly 30-day comment window, with feedback incorporated into a revised report.

Neal told the committee the task force focuses on the dispatch function rather than a comprehensive reassessment of Vermont’s statewide 911 platform. "It's important to understand that the task force work is focused on the dispatch function in Vermont," she said, noting the distinction between the Enhanced 911 Board’s hosted 911 system — which routes calls to six public safety answering points (PSAPs) — and the 37 distinct dispatch centers that provide operational coordination for responders.

The task force identified that six of the dispatch centers operate from outside Vermont under contracts with Vermont response agencies; the remaining 31 dispatch centers operate in-state. Neal said the Department of Public Safety currently operates two PSAPs (Westminster and Williston) that collectively handle about 68% of the state's 911 call volume and that the task force has “no preconceived notion of what the future state looks like.”

Committee members pressed Neal on costs, governance and equity. She said funding arrangements vary: state-operated centers are typically supported through general funds, county centers through different mechanisms, and municipal centers primarily through local budgets or contracts with response agencies. Neal said detailed cost and funding data are included in the inventory report.

Neal described the task force’s outreach: more than 40 regular meetings and roughly 10–12 special meetings since 2023, four regional town halls for emergency responders and more than 150 engaged stakeholders across six outreach sessions. She said the inventory included a cybersecurity assessment and that security-related material will be redacted from public-facing versions of the report; any legislative discussion of that material would need to occur in a confidential setting.

Neal said two vendors were retained via RFPs: Televate as project manager and Mission Critical Partners as the system-planning vendor. She said the system-planning draft will present multiple potential paths forward and that the task force expects to remain active to assess options and, if needed, seek additional resources to complete recommendations.

Several legislators asked whether the task force favors consolidation of centers or bringing out-of-state centers into Vermont; Neal reiterated that the task force has no predetermined outcome and will present options for consideration. She also said the agency that currently houses the Department of Public Safety’s radio technology division would likely continue to play a role in any future configuration, but she deferred specific organizational questions to the commissioner of public safety.

The task force’s next steps, as described to the committee, include finalizing the inventory report with appropriate redactions, releasing the draft system-planning report for public review on Feb. 19, collecting and incorporating public comment during the roughly 30-day review period, and continuing stakeholder engagement before producing a revised final report.