If you called 911 last year in Guilford County you almost certainly got a very fast pick up from an operator eager to help.

Guilford Metro 9-1-1 has released its 2025 annual report, showing that the agency handled more than 668,000 telephone transactions during the year while continuing to expand technology systems, train emergency communications staff and maintain one of the fastest emergency call answering times in North Carolina.

According to the report, GM911 answered 99.9 percent of all 911 calls within 10 seconds in 2025. The newly released report states that statewide analytics from the NC 9-1-1 Board consistently rank GM911 among the state leaders for emergency call answering speed.

“The 2025 calendar year was a good one for our department,” Executive Director Melanie Jones wrote in the report. “We continued our ongoing transition to a new computer-aided dispatch platform with Octave (formerly known as Hexagon). The department remains at the forefront in many areas.”

GM911 serves as Guilford County’s primary public safety answering point for enhanced 911 services and it provides dispatch and radio communications support for dozens of public safety agencies, local governments and institutions across the region.

The system handles emergency communications not just for Greensboro and Guilford County – but also for numerous towns, fire departments, colleges and partner agencies.

The report states that the Emergency Communications Division processed 668,678 telephone transactions in 2025, down 4.7 percent from the 701,644 handled in 2024.

Those calls included 326,595 incoming 911 calls, 187,317 non-emergency 10-digit calls and 154,766 outgoing calls.

Wireless phones continued to dominate emergency communications traffic. According to the report, wireless calls accounted for 86.6 percent of all 911 calls received by the center during the year. GM911 averaged 897 calls per day in 2025, a 3.7 percent decrease from the previous year.

Abandoned calls dropped 6.6 percent compared to 2024.

The report also provides a breakdown of the calls for service by agency.

Greensboro police calls made up the largest share at 174,193 calls in 2025 –  slightly below the previous year’s total. Guilford County EMS responded to 93,759 calls, while the Guilford County Sheriff’s Office handled 55,510 calls.

Greensboro Fire Department calls totaled 39,575, and Guilford County fire agencies handled 17,908 calls.

Overall calls for service across all agencies declined slightly by about one-half of one percent last year.

The report highlights a wide range of technology and communications projects completed during the year.

One of the department’s largest ongoing projects is the transition to the new Octave computer-aided dispatch platform, previously known as Hexagon. GM911 also continued upgrades to its public safety radio systems and communications infrastructure throughout 2025.

The Public Safety Information Technology Division implemented multi-factor authentication for public safety users, completed migration to a consolidated print server for multiple departments and it also deployed mobile device management software for phones and tablets. In addition, the division implemented the Axon Records Management System for the Greensboro Police Department and continued work on the new dispatch platform.

The new report states that the Public Safety IT Division maintained 99.99 percent uptime for GM911’s CAD and phone systems during 2025, excluding planned downtime. The division processed more than 8,600 work orders during the year, many of them completed within 24 hours.

The division also continued maintaining Guilford County’s geographic information system data used by emergency responders: In 2025, staff completed 16,782 address point additions or edits, 3,628 street segment edits, 2,744 polygon edits and 795 street segment additions.

The annual on local 911 service report places heavy emphasis on training and workforce development.

The department’s Quality Assurance and Training Section oversees new employee training, continuing education and public records requests while also coordinating simulation-based emergency communications training.

The section completed 7,655 public records requests in 2025.

GM911’s training curriculum follows standards established by the Association of Public Safety Communications Officials International and it remains accredited through APCO’s Agency Training Program.

The department also maintained Accredited Center of Excellence status for Emergency Medical Dispatch and Emergency Fire Dispatch through the International Academies of Emergency Dispatch.

AI is playing a bigger role in this service as it is almost everywhere these days.

The report notes that GM911 expanded use of simulation-based training and AI-supported instructional tools during 2025. According to the report, the AI Skill Lab transitioned from initial implementation to daily use as part of training operations. The department also expanded scenario-based simulations designed to improve decision-making during high-risk, low-frequency emergency situations.

GM911 also partnered with Guilford County EMS to create a Career and Technical Education Immersion initiative for Guilford County students interested in emergency communications and public safety careers.

Staffing remained a major issue during 2025, although the report indicates vacancy levels improved somewhat.

The Emergency Communications Division employed 83 emergency communications specialists during 2025, while the authorized staffing level stood at 89 positions including supervisors and one deputy director. The division averaged 10 vacancies per month and hired 13 new emergency communications specialists during 2025.

The report states that four employees resigned during the year, one transferred to another city department, two moved to part-time positions, one retired and two employees were dismissed.

The division ended the year with six vacancies and an 11.2 percent turnover rate.

The Technical Services Division – which manages the region’s 800 MHz trunked wireless radio system – reported maintaining 6,884 radio system assets in 2025. The division supports communications systems used by Greensboro, Guilford County, Burlington, Thomasville, Graham, NC A&T State University, Cone Health and many other public agencies and organizations.

During 2025, the division upgraded the department’s P25 digital trunked radio infrastructure platform to the newest version and continued improvements to radio frequency monitoring systems that are designed to identify interference problems.

The division also worked with contractors on building radio amplification systems required under updated state fire code rules.

The report states that the department also continued deploying new radios to Greensboro police, fire and government departments while maintaining backup emergency alerting systems and making security upgrades at radio tower sites.

The annual report also recognized numerous employees for performance, life-saving support and training accomplishments.

The department credited emergency communications personnel with 53 “life saves” during 2025.

Jones wrote that the department remains “progressive and responsive” to the needs of local agencies and residents.

“Without its dedication and professionalism, GM911 would not fulfill our mission of providing high-level customer service to the community and our users,” Jones wrote.

About