The structure, challenges and strategies affecting the emergency services differ in each country, as does the approach to the work of the emergency services and public authorities. This session will outline how some countries approach these challenges and you will hear them share their experiences.

1. EMERGENCY RESPONCE
CENTRE AGENCY
FINLAND
2019
Marko Nieminen
Director of ERC Services

2. • The ERC Agency provides ERC services throughout Finland,
excluding the Province of Åland.
• The task of the ERC Agency is to receive emergency calls from
all over the country that fall within the scope of the rescue, police,
social and health services, as well as other information relating to
the safety of people, property, and the environment, and to
forward their content to the appropriate authorities or partners.
ACT AND DECREE ON
EMERGENCY RESPONSE
CENTRE OPERATIONS
25.4.20192
The operations of ercs are provided for in the act on emergency response
centre operations (692/2010) and the related decree (877/2010).

3. 25.4.20193
General Director
Agency management
group
• director general
• directors of
departments
Compliance
monitoring
Steering and
Forecasting
Department
ERC Services Department Technical Services
Department
Headquarters
Human Resources
Unit
Finance Unit
C2 Centre
Kerava ERC
Kuopio ERC
Oulu ERC
Pori ERC
Turku ERC
Vaasa ERC
Operative Unit
Information Systems
Unit
Operations and
Maintenance Unit
ORGANIZATION
Communications
Unit
Development Unit

4. 4/25/20194
• Most of the ERC operators in the emergency response centers work as call takers. The
call taker also takes care of the dispatching of the different authorities’ units whenever it is
possible.
• Some ERC operators in emergency response centers have a task monitoring role. They
support the call takers as well as the field commanders and units. They take care of the
dispatching of tasks that are in the queue waiting for free units.
ERC WORKING MODEL IN FINLAND

5. • We produce high-quality ERC services with the help of network-based operations and modern technology.
• We promote safety and crisis tolerance in the society.
• Our operations promote collaboration with reliability, fairness and professionalism.
EMERGENCY RESPONCE CENTRE AGENCY 2020
25.4.20195
A network-based
operating model
New technology and
increasingly
sophisticated forms
of service
A reformed agency

6. 25.4.20196
A total of
7,400
emergency calls
were received daily.
A total of 7,200
emergency calls
were responded to
in under 30
seconds.
A total of
approximately
3,800
missions based on
emergency calls were
dispatched to other
authorities.
A total of
1,700
of the emergency
calls were
erroneous or
malicious each
day.
The Emergency
Response Centre
24 h
Emergency Response Centre Agency statistics for 2018

7. DISPATCHED TASK TO DIFFERENT AUTHORITIES
25.4.20197
Emergency
medical
services ; 55%
Rescue
services; 6%
Police; 35%
Others; 4%
Dispatched tasks
following from
emergency calls
51 %
Emergency Response Centre Agency statistics for 2018

8. Number of
personnel
607
PERSONNEL
25.4.20198
61%
39%
women
men
Sex ratio
20-24
1% 25-34
15%
35-44
30%45-54
33%
55-64
21%
Age distribution
7,8
13,9
21,8
55,1
1,4
Master’s degree
Bachelor’s degree
Vocational college
Upper secondary vocational
Unknown
%
Absences due to illness
16,2working days /person-year
Education
level
76%
24%
0%
20%
40%
60%
80%
permanent fixed-term
Nature of employment
Average-age
45,2
Job satisfaction
3,26 (on a scale of 1-5)
125
482
Administrative
personnel
On-call personnelpeople
Emergency Response Centre Agency statistics for 2018

9. • Finland has the world’s most extensive ERC operator's degree
programme.
• The training, leading to an ERC operator's degree, is a comprehensive
programme designed by the Emergency Services College (Kuopio), the
Police University College (Tampere), and the Emergency Response
Centre Agency.
• The studies comprise a total of 90 credits and the studies can be
completed in 1.5 years.
• Each year, two training courses start the programme (2 x 16).
• All ERC operators graduating from the Emergency Services College can
be hired directly by the Emergency Response Centre Agency.
• Also a bachelor’s degree in police services qualifies for working as an
ERC operator.
ERC OPERATOR'S DEGREE
25.4.20199

10. • AML (Advanced Mobile Location) was taken into use in Finland 2017.
• When a caller dials the emergency number, the service automatically activates the
telephone’s location services and sends the caller’s location to the ERC. AML also
works with text messages.
• The AML service sends the caller’s location information to the ERC’s information
system via the mobile telephone network. The location information is sent as soon as
the call is answered by an ERC operator. The information is refreshed after 5, 15, 25,
30 and 60 seconds and at 30-second intervals thereafter for the entire duration of the
call. Emergency text messages are only located once.
• AML is a pan-European service, but, in Finland, it only works on telephones that
have a Finnish SIM card.
• AML requires no special action from the caller. The service
also works without data access.
EMERGENCY LOCATION SERVICE AML
25.4.201910

11. Emergency SMS to the emergency number 112
• The Emergency SMS service is primarily designed for individuals who
cannot hear or produce speech.
• Emergency SMS messages can only be sent from telephone numbers that
have been registered in advance.
• The advance registration is done on the suomi.fi website.
• During law preparation, registration with the Emergency SMS Service was
considered essential in order to prevent vandalism and secure access to the
service
• AML is used in 112 SMS service.
Interpretation services in sign language
• In the autumn of 2019, Kela, the Ministry of the Interior, the Ministry of Social
Affairs and Health and the Emergency Response Centre Agency will start a
one-year trial where a person with an emergency can make an emergency
notification using Finnish sign language via an interpreting service centre for
the disabled.
SERVICES FOR SPECIAL GROUPS
25.4.201911

12. • When calling using the 112 Suomi mobile application, the emergency caller's exact
location is automatically relayed to the ERC, which speeds up emergency call
handling.
• The 112 Suomi app was designed by the Emergency Response Centre Agency in
collaboration with Digia. Digia Oyj is a Finnish IT company which delivers information
systems, for example, to the various public safety authorities.
• The 112 Suomi app can be downloaded free of charge on all Android and iOS
devices. App stores also have free versions of the app for Windows and Jolla
phones, but these versions are no longer updated.
See the video >
FASTER ACCESS TO HELP
IN AN EMERGENCY
25.4.201912

13. • Additional features of the 112 Suomi app include a list of non-emergency telephone
numbers.
• The following numbers have been collected in the app:
• Maritime search and rescue, Road Users’ Phone Service, Poison Information
Centre, Public Service Info, MLL’s Child and Youth Phone, 24/7 service of the
Ministry for Foreign Affairs and a phone service for providing tips on missing
children.
• When calling the Road Users’ Phone Service, the caller’s location will be transmitted
to the Finnish Transport Agency’s Road Traffic Management Centre.
See the video >
EMERGENCY NUMBERS FOR NON-
EMERGENCY NEEDS
25.4.201913

14. The Command and Control Centre of the
Emergency Response Centre Agency
• monitors the national situational picture of the Emergency Response
Centres with regard to the amount of calls and missions as well as the
personnel situation via ERICA.
• maintains a situational picture of all the systems related to emergency
response centre operations.
• monitors the situational picture (amount of resources, missions and
readiness for action) of the missions related to the emergency response
centre operations and under processing in the Emergency Response
Centre Agency.
• cooperates with the different authorities and other operators, such as the
Finnish Meteorological Institute and the situational, command and
preparedness centres of the National Cyber Security Centre.
• follows the situational picture of society
• implements the communication procedures related to warning the
population, and supports operative information services.
25.4.201914
THE COMMAND AND CONTROL CENTRE IS
THE HUB OF COMMUNICATIONS AND THE
CORE OF PREPAREDNESS

15. • The Emergency Response Centre Agency has a
statutory task of relaying public safety alerts
provided by the authorities to Yleisradio (Finnish
Broadcasting Company) who will then
communicate the danger announcements on
television, on the radio and on teletext page 112.
• The Command and Control Centre will also issue
the public safety alerts in the channels supporting
the official system offered by the administration:
112 Suomi, social media channels of the
Emergency Response Centre Agency, 112.fi.
PUBLIC WARNING
25.4.201915

16. • The on-call consular services of the Ministry for
Foreign Affairs were transferred to be handled by the
Emergency Response Centre Agency’s
Command and Control Centre on 1 August 2018.
• The Emergency Response Centre Agency assists in
the provision of consular service in situations
where a Finnish citizen or a foreign national with a
permanent residence in Finland is in distress abroad.
• The service is implemented in the form of guidance
and advice.
• Approximately 7,000 to 8,000 requests are received
each year regarding various problem situations
abroad.
CONSULAR SERVICE
25.4.201916
Free help desk: +358 9 1605 5555
Help desk email: paivystys.um@formin.fi
Web consul: www.facebook.com/Nettikonsuli

17. ERC ICT SYSTEM: ERICA
25.4.201917

18. • The ERICA system will be a nationwide networked information
system that provides the 112 services throughout the country.
• The networked information system enables optimal use of the
resources of the emergency response centres and enables
obtaining real-time situational picture of the internal security in the
whole country in a centralized manner.
• The ERICA system will be used by the Emergency Response
Centre Agency, police, fire and rescue, health and social services,
as well as border guard to update the information of their units and
risk analysis as well as for command and control center purposes.
• There will be altogether 50 different sites using the system within
the user rights of different authorities.
ERICA IS AN ERC SYSTEM FOR ALL PARTIES
INVOLVED IN THE 112 CHAIN
25.4.201918

19. • primary areas of responsibility to continue
• distribution of tasks from the ERC of the scene of
the incident
• permanent ability to find replacements during
disruptions
common operational picture and overall incident
management
real time flow of information between the systems
of ERCs and field commanders during the mission
remote use competence, operatives maintain their
own data with individual access to the necessary
support services via the field system
• integration of nationally approved risk assessment
procedures into the system
• regional differences noted in response planning
and target-based specific guidelines
• geographic data properties
(caller, units and route optimisation)
• information system usability
• use of registers, documentation
• support service arrangements
• use of the nearest and most appropriate unit
AN INFORMATION SYSTEM AS FULLY
INTEGRATED AS POSSIBLE
IMPROVEMENTS UNIFORM OPERATING MODELS
CALL OVERFLOW
DURING CONGESTED PERIODS

20. 4/25/201920
ERICA contains new things for call-taking and
dispatching:
• 112 calls from anywhere in Finland
• Automatic geopositioning of caller
• Automatic answer
• Integrated risk analysis
• Integrated communication tool (phone,
TETRA radio, emergency SMSs).
• Real-time response time of units / drive time
calculation
• Dispatch calculation / response proposal
NEW FEATURES FOR CALL-TAKING

21. 4/25/201921
• All emergency calls include 112 phone
calls, sensor system calls (fire and burglar
alarms), eCalls, and emergency SMSs are
brought together in one logical call queue.
• At the moment, emergency calls are
routed to the emergency response center
that is closest to the caller location, but it
is possible to answer the call from
anywhere, if needed.
• Transition to a fully networked operational
model will happen in stages 2019 – 2020.
COMMON 112 CALL QUEUE

22. • The purpose of the risk analysis integrated
in the ERICA is to:
1. promote the uniform quality and
specified form of the processing of
emergency calls
2. improve the material related to
emergency missions for the different
authorities
3. support the operator in his or her
decision-making.
• A risk analysis will guide the dialogue
between the ERC operator and the person
making the emergency call with a
question-response principle.
RISK ANALYSIS IS THE ERC OPERATOR’S TOOL
25.4.201922

23. 4/25/201923
• With ERICA, the call-taker can
dispatch the units with a single
mouse click. Synthesized speech
(TTS) takes care of the radio
announcement.
• All the units are in the same
database throughout Finland and
have a unique code in the ICT
system.
NEW APPROACH TO DISPATCHING

24. 4/25/201924
• The dispatch rules defined for units and
other resources define which abilities and
activity requirements are required in certain
missions and thus define the most
appropriate units to be dispatched – from
any area (no borders).
• According to these rules ERICA composes
a response proposal, that is, a suggestion
on which a unit or units should be
dispatched, based on unit positioning data
and information obtained in the incident
assessment.
RESPONSE PROPOSAL

25. 4/25/201925
ERICA is a nationwide system, which makes
it possible to view the situational picture of
authority operation as a whole.
The situational picture means real-time
information on
• Field operation – location of active
incidents, as well as location of the units
and their ability to take on new tasks
• Workload of the emergency response
centres – waiting times of different queues
SITUATIONAL PICTURE AND REPORTING

26. 25.4.201926
Units and C2C centers get more valuable information and the use of resources across
"old" borders has improved. The queued tasks have reduced and reinforcements are
dispatched quicker.
Risk analysis / dispatch rules require a lot of work and co-operation inside different
authorities to find the right balance in urgency classification and in using the resources
a big cultural change
The general understanding of emergency response center services amongst all
authorities has increased during the co-operation process.
People get better service!
EXPERIENCES SO FAR

27. ERC OPERATIONS IN A CHANGING WORLD
1. Founding and
developing of the
Emergency Response
Centre Administration
between 2001 and 2009
2. Restructuring
between 2010 and 2015
3. Network-based
administration between
2016 and 2020
4. Strategy between
2021 and 2025
Reverse 112
+
112 big data?
Speech to text?
Interpretation tools?
Robotisation and
automatics in testing of
automatic devices?
112 chat bot?
AI / machine learning
solutions?
Transition to a fully
networked operational model
in stages 2019 - 2020

28. 25.4.201928
Thank you for your interest!
marko.nieminen@112.fi
Twitter: @MarkoNieminen1
@112_Finland