Every Florida County has an E911 Coordinator and the primary mission of the Alachua County E911 Coordinator is to assess potential 911 service interruptions and initiate those actions necessary to mitigate the impact. In addition to infrastructure and system maintenance, a central function of emergency services is locating emergency calls from a variety of devices.
E911 systems present location information to 911 call takers based on the caller’s phone number for landline calls or geographic coordinates for wireless calls. The foundation of this system is accurate data. The E911 Office maintains the data that is used by call takers when answering an emergency call. Accurate data ensures that the address that appears with the telephone number is the address of the caller and allows for the quick and accurate dispatch of emergency responders. Currently, E911 relies on both traditional databases and GIS (spatially enabled) databases. The transition to Next Generation 911 will transfer all data to a GIS data format.
Locating an incident is essential for the efficient delivery of emergency services. Time lost to emergency crews attempting to locate a confusing or improperly addressed structure, or an address which is not properly posted, can have disastrous consequences. To ensure that address assignments are made to adhere with a 911 standard, the E911 Office provides address assignment, verification, and correction services for all of Alachua County, except the Town of Micanopy.
The E911 Office continually strives to provide the citizens of Alachua County with the best available 911 system. Our approach to locating a caller is comprehensive: from ensuring that 911 call taker’s have up-to-date, well functioning equipment; to making sure a structure is assigned and displays a 911 standard address; and all of the behind the scenes data maintenance in between, we consistently work to improve and refine our systems so that Alachua County can rely on the best available E911 system for its emergency services.
The E911 Office is funded by the Emergency Communications Number E911 System Fund. E911 funds are generated from a fee levied on telephone subscribers, $.50 per month per line, under Florida Statute 365.172 and may only be used for 911 purposes.
A. Keith Godwin is the director for the
E911/Communications Office. The office is open Monday through Thursday, from 7:00am to 5:30pm. The Office is closed on Fridays.
Address: 911 SE 5th Street, Gainesville FL 32601
Mailing: PO Box 5038, Gainesville FL 32627-5038
Telephone: (352) 338-7361
Fax: (352) 374-5298
Email: 
E911addressing@alachuacounty.us