2023 Laws of Puerto Rico › TITLE TWENTY-FIVE - Internal Security (§§ 1 — 3356) › Subtitle 1 - Generally (§§ 1 — 1973) › PART VIII - Police of Puerto Rico (§§ 1001-1029 — 1973) › Chapter 191 - 9-1-1 Service (§§ 1911 — 1919) › § 1912 - 9-1-1 Service Government Board

An organization is hereby created, which shall be called the 9-1-1 Service Government Board, formed by the Police Superintendent, the Executive Director of the Medical Emergencies Corps of Puerto Rico, the Chief of the Puerto Rico Firefighters Corps, and the Executive Director of the Commonwealth Emergency Management and Administration Agency. In addition to the four ex officio members mentioned here, the Board shall be formed by an additional member representing the public interest, who shall be selected and appointed with the consent of the ex-officio members mentioned herein. The representative for the public interest shall be selected from a list of candidates, to be supplied by the professional institutions recognized or accredited by law, to be determined by the ex officio members, among which shall be the Medical Association and the College of Engineers. The professional institutions shall nominate one candidate each.
The Board of ex officio members shall take office immediately after this act becomes effective, constituting themselves as the 9-1-1 Service executive council with all the powers granted to them by this chapter, and shall proceed with the process to select the public service representative.
Without restricting the faculties and duties of the public safety agencies and of the officials who constitute the Board of Governors in compliance of their ministerial duties, the Board shall be in charge of the coordination of any joint government effort to enforce the provisions of this chapter.
The Police Superintendent shall be the Chairperson and shall contract a technical consultant with experience in 9-1-1 technology. The technical consultant shall not be a voting member of the Board, but he shall be required to attend all its meetings.
The members of the Board who are government employees shall not be paid fees nor per diems in the exercise of their duties.
The 9-1-1 Service Governing Board shall adopt bylaws for its internal operations. Through said bylaws, the Board shall establish the fees that telephone service providers are authorized to collect from the Island’s telephone service subscribers to facilitate the establishment of 9-1-1 and 3-1-1 operations, as well as necessary technologies in each participating public safety agency or instrumentality to provide an adequate response and action and to defray the service’s operating and maintenance expenses in said agencies. The Board shall adopt all other regulations deemed necessary to expedite interagency coordination and the rendering of emergency or other services contemplated herein, as well as regulations that its members identify, by consensus, in the future as falling under its jurisdiction. The Board shall also establish through regulations all that is necessary to carry out its purposes.
The Board may contract and compensate telephone companies for them to provide the services related to the 9-1-1 Service and its availability to the telephone users, as well as the collecting service of the fees to users established by the Board.
The Board shall periodically evaluate the implementation of this chapter and shall measure its effectiveness in meeting its objective. It shall make pertinent recommendations to the Governor of Puerto Rico and Legislature on the measures, provisions, norms and regulations that shall be subject to review for improvement, repeal or adoption, in order to provide a better public safety emergency response service.
Coordinate, with the general citizenry or any community organization, campaigns to improve the communication between the citizenry and agencies responsible for rendering public emergency services. For these purposes, and in those cases in which the 9-1-1 service lines are out of service or broken down, it shall coordinate with public agencies rendering emergency services the immediate disclosure of their telephone numbers. Every year the Board shall submit a report to the Governor and the Legislative Assembly of the activities conducted in accordance with the duties entrusted thereto under this chapter.
The Board shall submit an annual report to the Governor and the Legislature of its activities within the functions granted by this chapter.
History —Dec. 22, 1994, No. 144, § 3; Aug. 3, 1995, No. 108, § 2; Jan. 5, 2002, No. 18, § 2; Jan. 8, 2004, No. 9, § 1 [sic]; Dec. 30, 2009, No. 221, § 1; July 12, 2011, No. 126, § 2.