§ 441-1. Legislative intent.

A. 

This Legislature hereby finds and determines that assistance to protect the lives and property of Suffolk County residents is almost always summoned by telephone, that a multiplicity of emergency telephone numbers exist within the County and that unintentional, though avoidable, delays in reaching appropriate emergency assistance can and do occur to the detriment and jeopardy of life and property.

B. 

This Legislature further determines that the three-digit number 911 is a nationally recognized and applied telephone number which may be used to summon emergency aid and to eliminate delays caused by lack of familiarity with emergency numbers and by understandable confusion in the moment of crisis.

C. 

This Legislature also finds that the enhanced emergency telephone service known as "enhanced 911" provides substantial benefits beyond basic 911 systems through the provision of selective routing and automatic number and location identification and that these enhancements not only significantly reduce the response time of emergency services, but also represent the state of the art in fail-safe emergency telephone system technology.

D. 

This Legislature further finds and determines that a major obstacle to the establishment, upgrading and maintenance of an enhanced 911 system in the County is the cost of telecommunication equipment and services which are necessary to provide such system.

E. 

Therefore, the purpose of this article is to implement a funding mechanism to assist in the payment of the costs associated with establishing and maintaining an enhanced 911 system and thereby considerably increasing the potential for providing all citizens of this County with the valuable services inherent in an enhanced 911 system.