Welcome to TCOG 9-1-1

9-1-1 Communications

The mission of the Texoma Council of Governments Regional 9-1-1 Emergency Communications program is to provide the residents of the Texoma Region (Cooke, Fannin and Grayson Counties) access to state of the art emergency telecommunications by facilitation, implementation, improving and maintaining Enhanced 9-1-1 Emergency Communication Services. The primary objective of Regional 9-1-1 is to provide citizens with access to an emergency service by dialing 9-1-1 and to provide or make available emergency communications equipment, training, and technical support to all six (6) Public Safety Answering Points (PSAP's) within our three county region.

What is 9-1-1?

9-1-1 is the universal emergency telephone number designed to give citizens an easy to remember phone number for POLICE, FIRE, or MEDICAL emergencies. By dialing just three numbers, "9-1-1" a caller can be connected to trained professionals who are used to dealing with emergencies, and who can if necessary, route your call to the appropriate agency quickly.

What are the Benefits of 9-1-1?

9-1-1 provides a single phone number for use for all types of emergencies: POLICE, FIRE, and MEDICAL. This is important because studies show that 90% of us do not know our emergency phone numbers. Having 9-1-1 reduces the confusion of looking in the directory for the appropriate seven-digit telephone number.

The benefits are:

Calls are routed over special emergency phone lines
Calls are recognized and answered as emergency calls
Calls are answered by trained telecommunicators
Helps shorten overall response time
Helps save lives and property

Local governments and public safety answering points benefit from the program by providing only the local operations. TCOG provides planning, implementation, management as well as ongoing administration of the regional network of systems and financing.

Who pays for 9-1-1?

House Bill 911 allows communities to finance the costs of regional 9-1-1 service in two ways:

A 9-1-1 emergency service fee, not to exceed 50 cents per month, on all phone lines and collected by the local telephone companies.
A 9-1-1 monthly Equalization Surcharge, not to exceed 1 percent, on all long distance calls within Texas.