Pasadena’s Public Safety Committee Meets Wednesday

The Pasadena City Council’s Public Safety Committee will receive updates on the City’s new Text 9-1-1 facility at the Pasadena Police Department and on the study about Liability Issues and Enhancing User Safety at the Rose Bowl Loop, during its meeting Wednesday, January 17, at the Pasadena City Hall.

The two subjects are listed as information-only items on the Committee’s agenda.

Pasadena’s Text 9-1-1 service has been in use since June 2017. A preliminary report from the police department showed that since then, 118 text sessions have been initiated in the system, with four of them leading to police responses and five leading to police responses by way of transfer to other agencies. The remaining number of contacts have been test calls, misdials or requests for information.

As of December 1, 2017, most police dispatch centers in Los Angeles County have been equipped to receive and respond to mobile phone SMS using Text 9-1-1. In Pasadena, the service is available for use by the speech- or hearing-impaired, the deaf or hard of hearing, and in situations where it is too dangerous to make a voice call to 9-1-1.

In some areas where Text 9-1-1 is not available, users who send messages to the service are to receive a bounce-back message advising them that text is not available, and that they should make a voice call to 9-1-1 instead.

According to the preliminary information that will be presented Wednesday to the Public Safety Committee, users should also be prepared to give their location within the message, since location accuracy using the cell phone signals could vary by carrier and should be relied upon. The system also is not able to receive photos or videos at this time, so users are advised to limit their messages to text only.

Additionally, the system recognizes only English and has currently no language interpretation available for text messages.

About the Rose Bowl Loop, the Committee will receive updates from the City’s Department of Transportation, assisted by the office of the City Attorney.

Earlier, the City Council directed the Transportation Department to prepare a study about how the City should handle cases when someone, for example, is injured or property is damaged during accidents at the Loop, which is being improved to enhance the safety of users – motorists, runners, bike riders as well as pedestrians who use the Rose Bowl Loop for a variety of reasons, including recreation and exercise.

The study should advise the City Council what possible liability would the City have for accidents resulting from the recreational and other uses on the Rose Bowl Loop, learn what liability risks can be managed with Insurance, and explore engineering solutions to enhance user safety.

The presentation is also expected to inform the members of the Public Safety Committee about the procedures that should be considered when someone files a claim after suffering an injury while using the Loop for various types of recreation, and the options available to ensure anyone injured is properly compensated.

Planning for improvements and safety enhancements in the Rose Bowl Loop have been going on since around 2010, and a number of community outreach meetings have been conducted to gather public input about the enhancements. All recommendations are supposed to be acted on and final recommended options be submitted before the end of the first quarter this year, according to earlier discussions.

The Public Safety Committee meeting on Wednesday begins at 6 p.m. Public comment on matters not in the agenda will be allowed after the roll call.