County-wide 911 System Update Changes Many Gig Harbor Addresses

GIG HARBOR, WA — Residents and businesses located within a 6-mile swath of Gig Harbor, from just south of Purdy to the Madrona Links Golf Course along the SR-16 corridor, will see the "NW" removed from their addresses later this summer. The change is reportedly being made in order to conform with the city and county's adoption of the Next Generation 911 standard.

Next Generation 911 (NG911) is a nationwide update to the U.S. 911 system that will reportedly allow emergency call-takers to process calls from just about any source or format, including voice, text, photo, video-streams, and electronic sensors.

Essentially, the 911 system we currently use was designed and operated in an analog format. With NG911, public safety answering points will be updated to a digital or IP-based system.

"By updating addresses within the city limits to remove the 'NW' directional, city addresses are clearly delineated from the rest of the peninsula," Community Development Director Katrina Knutson said in a statement. "This will aid first responders and hopefully reduce response times."

When a resident in Gig Harbor calls 911, that call is routed to South Sound 911 in Tacoma. To help South Sound 911 dispatchers quickly and correctly identify the origin of an emergency call, Gig Harbor must get all the addresses within the city limits to conform to the same addressing standard.

Right now, every address that includes "NW" does not match the rest of the system, officials said.

South Sound 911 began planning the NG911 update to its systems in 2018. The first step in that process saw South Sound 911's text-to-911 service come online in late March 2019.

In order to bring the rest of the system online, however, a variety of other private, state, and federal partners will need to coordinate their respective roles in the complex update. According to Pierce County, those partners include:

• Washington State E911 Coordinator's Office (SECO);
• Originating Service Providers (those companies that provide services directly to the consumer);
• Pierce County Spatial Services (developing the mapping systems and data needed to better understand a user's location at the time an emergency occurs);
• Joint Base Lewis-McChord;
• Washington State Patrol (District 1 - Tacoma); and
• Multiple public safety communications hardware and software developers.

Property owners who will see the "NW" dropped from their addresses were notified this month of the forthcoming change, which is scheduled to go into effect Sept. 30.

To learn more about this massive and complex update to local and national 911 systems, check out these links:

• Gig Harbor's "NW Directional Project"
• Pierce County's role in NG911
• NG911 Explainer from 911.gov

Gig Harbor residents can also get more info either by calling 253-851-6170, or emailing ghnwproject@cityofgigharbor.net.