More Phase III Woes

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http://www.kesq.com/Global/story.asp?S=4252415 & nav=9qrx

Thursday, December 15, 2005

Police say it could take longer to get help if you call 911 from your

cell phone

Emergency problems. Does it take longer for the police or fire

department to get to you in an emergency if you dial 911 from your cell phone?

NewsChannel 3 began its investigation into this potential 911 problem

yesterday when we told you about a La Quinta house fire.

That fire started at a home in the La Quinta Cove. There's a fire

station just a few miles away. So why did it take the fire department

over an hour to get there?

It could be because that family called 911 from a cell phone. You

might be surprised to find out where your call goes when you dial 911.

If you dial from your home phone, the call first goes to a dispatch

all the way in Riverside. The exact location of your call pops up on

their screen. Then they dispatch the local police or fire department.

But if you call from a cell phone, it's a different story.

" What you may not know is that when you dial 911 from a cell phone,

the call ends up here at the California Highway Patrol. "

That's because they're a state agency that can interact with

emergency personnel anywhere in the state.

" Our dispatchers will talk to the caller, determine what agency with

jurisdiction it is and forward that call that that agency, " says

Officer Sorg with CHP.

And they have no idea of your location, until you tell them exactly

where you are. The fire department blames this cell phone 911 problem

on the delay in arriving to the La Quinta house fire that caused

$17,000 in damage last week.

That family ended up putting out the fire with their garden hose

after calling 911 three times from a cell phone.

The fire department finally arrived nearly an hour and a half later.

" We did have an error in the location and that's the other part of

calling from a cell phone. You don't get a location that pops up on

the screen like you do when you call from a landline.

And while many cell phones have GPS technology in them, emergency

workers are not equipped with that technology yet.

" While the technology is getting better and getting closer to that,

it's not at that point. When a person does use a 911 cellular system

they need to be able to provide a location. "

Which can be difficult if you don't know where you are, proving that

the 911 cell phone system is far from perfect.