Durham could reroute some 911 calls to Fayetteville in proposed partnership

Durham City Council is considering a partnership with Fayetteville to ensure all 911 calls are answered in emergencies in the rare event of a widespread 911 outage in Durham.

Posted 4:03 a.m. Mar 7 — Updated 6:10 p.m. Mar 7

WRAL staff

Durham City Council is considering a partnership with Fayetteville to ensure all 911 calls are answered in emergencies in the rare event of a widespread 911 outage in Durham.

During a Thursday work session, Durham City Council will discuss an interlocal agreement with the city of Fayetteville for alternate 911 call routing.

The state of North Carolina requires such agreements, and it is standard for 911 call centers in different cities to form a partnership.

Stressing how infrequently this relationship is likely to be used, a city spokesperson told WRAL News "there have not been any incidents in the recent past that we are aware of in which [the] 911 center has lost total power due to an emergency for an extended period of time."

The 911 center has been experiencing staffing issues for years, but city officials reiterate this rerouting of calls is unrelated to that.

In January of 2023, WRAL News reported nearly half of the open positions at Durham's call center were open.

Durham had an informal backup relationship with the Raleigh-Wake Emergency Community Center in 2021, but now wants a "formal" relationship with another city.

The city council agenda cited shared infrastructure, technological similarities and a similar size and capacity as reasons for the switch.

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