How does your area handle cell phone 911 calls?

[explcdt8]

I was just wondering how your area handles cell phone 911 calls. In my county they have finally gotten cell calls to be routed to the county 911 center (rather than the State Police barracks).

I know they are trying to do this nationwide, but has it happened everywhere yet?

[maz]

I left dispatching in 2007 when I got hired by NYPD but was a county dispatcher in NJ. All 9-1-1 cell calls were routed to the county center with the exception of Verizon Wireless for somereason. However, from what I hear that has changed. If it was an abandoned 9-1-1 call with no voice contact at all the call was usually dismissed. Sometimes we would call back to verify but most of the time that caused confusion anyway. The caller sat on their phone and doesn't believe you when you tell them they called 9-1-1, then when they see a regular phone number show up on their called ID and you tell them you are the 9-1-1 center they think its a prank call. Like I said, unless there is initial voice contact we wouldn't bother calling back.

[grussem]

Out here it goes directly to CHP. If it is something that is out of their jurisdiction, they transfer you to the regular 911 call taker.

[explcdt8]

Originally Posted by grussem

Out here it goes directly to CHP. If it is something that is out of their jurisdiction, they transfer you to the regular 911 call taker.

Are there any plans to change that? It seems to be based on a faulty premsie that people only use their cell phones on freeways, or in out of the way places.

[MrJim911]

California has been rerouting their cell 911 calls to the local PSAP responsible for the location that the call is originating in. And that is the way it should be and the accepted norm now. There are still some areas (nationwide) that still go to the State Police, but not many anymore.

Here, we call back on all calls. There is liability in not doing anything when you are able to. The first time you don't call back a 911 call will be the time the caller dies for whatever reason and the family sues your agency and they will win.

We are Phase II so we send a officer out to check the area that is plotted on if we do not get a response on call back.

[pdx911]

I'm with 911 for Portland, OR and our cell calls come directly to us, as well as report their coordinates (if possible) to a maping system we each have at our work stations that gives us a general idea, within 300 meters, of where our caller is located.

Very handy tool, not sure I could live without it.

[mcsap]

ALL 911 calls go to our County Control , not the State Police barracks. They do have some means of getting grid coordinates on such calls from some carriers. Other times they can only tell us which cell tower they are hitting.

[masko5]

Where I work in So Fla they come directly to our 911 psap. We have 6 psaps in Dade Co and they should go to the respected location...which not always happens. Right now they are testing to get actuate lat/long re-bids which will give us the exact location of the caller. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. I've been answering 911 calls for over 19 years and it's getting better. But the majority of our citizens don't know where they are so it gives false hope when the system doesn't work.

[Aussie George]

I'll give you an insight into how it is hanled down here, not that it really applies to the same way things would be done in your neck of the woods, for various reasons.

Call comes in and the computer picks up what is known as a CLI (caller line id). On the screen it shows the comms operator the recorded address of that phone. Problem one is that if you move address, and call your phone company etc to advise them of your new address, it changes your billing address but it does not change your CLI - and of course no-one knows that!!! :rolleyes:

If it was sounds of screaming etc, then patrol would be dispatched to address on CLI but if the operator is switched on, they will advise the patrol that it is coming from a mobile. Hopefully they will also do a check on the number and it might be linked to a home address if that person has (for instance) reported a crime and given both home and mobile numbers to Police.

As the patrol I would respond lights and sirens to a job that was reported as screaming/DV at a location. However if it was relayed to me that the CLI came up to a mobile, I would not be busting my butt to get there. I am not going to risk my butt to the extreme, when there is a good chance that the phone is not at the address.

EG: I got tasked to sounds of screaming, no caller on the line, open phone. Operator heard female voice screaming for help and male voice threatening her. Two patrols (me being one) attended lights and sirens. There was an unmarked traffic unit and a SRS (like SWAT) team in the area who let us know they would swing by and back us up (must have been a slow day for them)

Got there and it was a nice house, nice area, and the two girls aged about 16 years who were playing Singstar on the PS got an awful fright when the house was surrounded by us. After talking to her, we realised it was probably her sister who was a druggie living on the other side of the city who they had had nothing to do with for years. No known address.

The operator apologised for forgetting to tell us that it was a mobile. If I had known it was a mobile, I wouldn't have gone so fast.

[noelchabanel]

911 calls go to the state 911 office here and are then forwarded to whatever local dispatch service is needed. I've also wondered about cell phones though. I know that in some locations, especially mountain areas (where hikers get lost, realize it can even be deadly freezing on memorial day and call for help) the tower is often in another state or in Canada....IF you are lucky enough to get service. Good thing their emergency operators are bilingual I guess :eek: Anywhere else have that problem? What do they do to find where people are when they have the GPS shut off (aside from asking, which doesn't always work)?

[Aussie George]

We had a case here recently in the news where an operator (who obviously wasn't worth a pinch of dog poo) took a call from a young man in a national park. The man stated he had been seperated from his friends and did not know where he was. The operator requested street names etc and when the guy couldn't give them, BECAUSE HE WAS LOST AND IN A NATIONAL PARK!!!!!:mad: - the operator refused to put a job on and did sweet FA!!!

All this came to light in the young man's case before the coroners court (IE - he was found dead in the park).

The operator had previously been in trouble for not taking callers seriously and other things like that.

It would have been a simple case of telling the man to stay put, or head for high country, keep his phone on and the company could have done a triangulation and found at least a rough area for the rescuers to search.

We have used it also when someone has threatened suicide, or in a case where a guy pulled a gun on me and got away, the next day he was in constant contact to arrange his surrender. He told Police that he was in the southern area of our city, but we knew he wasn't due to the mobile phone triangulations. Found him!! (Then he shot himself) :cool:

[WilliamTomFrank]

The 911 calls here go that county's 911 Center, which is a "division" of that county's Sheriffs Department.

[Brendon]

Do 911 calls even get directed to Police Departments anymore? It seems most of them go to call centers that are sometimes not even in the area.

[deputywave]

Originally Posted by Brendon

Do 911 calls even get directed to Police Departments anymore? It seems most of them go to call centers that are sometimes not even in the area.

No. Due to budget constraints, many agencies have opted to outsource their call centers. The biggest share of these calls are answered by call centers in Hyderabad.




911. Would you like a slurpee.:eek::D

[INTUIGINSURSE]

My cousin has an iphone and shes with AT&T they are charging her extra for texting people in Canada.
Is there a way for her to get free texting to Canada?