Amends TCA Title 4; Title 7; Title 8; Title 29; Title 39; Title 58 and Title 63.

This bill adds emergency call takers and public safety dispatchers to the types of first responder occupations for which the state insurance committee or a local government may offer or continue to provide health insurance benefits to the surviving spouse and children, including any unborn child, if the first responder is killed in the line of duty for a period not to exceed two years after the death of the first responder. This bill also revises and adds to the provisions governing emergency communication districts (ECD), as follows: (1) Under present law, the board of directors of a district must create an emergency communications service capable of utilizing at least one of the following three methods in response to emergency calls: direct dispatch method, relay method, or transfer method. This bill applies the present law provision to non-emergency calls and requires, prior to January 1, 2024, the ECD to utilize the direct dispatch method in response to emergency calls; this revision will not apply to a district where the total number of dispatchers employed by all public safety answering points in the district total more than 300 employees until January 1, 2025; (2) Under present law, each public safety emergency services provider retains the right to dispatch its own services, unless a voluntary agreement is made between the provider and the board of directors of the ECD. This bill specifies that such provider retains the right to dispatch its own "non-emergency services" unless voluntarily agreed upon between provider and board of directors; (3) Under present law, a service supplier is not required to provide 911 service if the equipment for such service is not available. This bill specifies that a service supplier is not required to provide 911 "non-emergency service" if equipment for such is not available; and (4) This bill requires that all emergency 911 calls, with the exception of misrouted calls, be dispatched by the initial public service answering point without being transferred and provides the dispatcher with discretion to transfer non-emergency calls via attended transfer. This bill provides that after the emergency call is direct dispatched, the emergency call may be transferred via attended transfer. Under this bill, districts and public safety answering points that do not dispatch ambulances may direct dispatch another medical first responder to respond and stand by until an ambulance arrives on scene. This bill defines "attended transfer" as the transfer of a telephone call received by a dispatcher where, before actually transferring the call to the end destination or third party for further assistance, the call is not put on hold and another call is initiated by the dispatcher to confirm that the end destination or third party is prepared to take the call so that the two calls can be merged together.