Orangeburg County to install VIPER 7.0 for 911 by year’s end

Orangeburg County’s emergency response system is undergoing a major upgrade, which aims to improve how 911 responders assist residents during emergencies.

County leaders announced that the new system, known as VIPER 7.0, will strengthen the technology behind emergency calls and improve coordination between agencies. The upgrade, which costs just over $224,000, focuses on behind-the-scenes software improvements rather than building new facilities.

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Currently, emergency response times in Orangeburg County average 13 minutes for EMS and 10 minutes for fire services. Officials believe the technology upgrade could reduce those times and introduce new capabilities such as texting 911 and sending photos directly from a smartphone.

“That's a very important piece of our technology and the backbone for our communication systems,” said Harold Young, Orangeburg County Administrator. “Back in the day when you had legacy 911 systems, all they dealt with was voice calls. Now, this 911 system and next generation 911 systems allow us to use the technology for integrated multimedia texting and all the platforms that come along with cellphones.”

The $224,476 price tag will not be covered by local taxes. Instead, the county will use the 911 tariff fund , a fee included in residents’ phone bills that supports emergency systems nationwide.

“The 911 center is a very complex center and this upgrade also is a big part of this upgrade allows for redundancy and that redundancy helps us in case of outages and things of that nature to be able to still provide a 911 service and it also is the information that, that is critical to pass upon to first responders and stuff as we deal with, with accidents,” Young said.

County officials expect the system to be installed by the end of the year, although full implementation and dispatcher training will take several additional months.

Once complete, residents will be able to contact 911 not only by phone but also through text messages, images, and videos, giving first responders more tools to assess and respond to emergencies quickly.

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