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County Tests Locating 911 callersTracking Cell Phone Calls

Posted on: Saturday, 20 August 2005, 18:00 CDT

Douglas County is testing technology that allows 911 dispatchers to pinpoint calls from some cellular phones.

The county is the first in the state to implement the potentially life-saving system.

Not everyone's calls can be traced, however.

For a call to be pinpointed, the phone must be a newer model with a global positioning chip.

In addition, the county initially will be getting the data to pinpoint calls from only two cellular providers, Sprint and Verizon.

Those providers have agreed to provide the data for free. The county's other four major providers -- Alltel, Cingular, Cricket and U.S. Cellular -- would charge and will not be included in the project at this time. The county originally planned to work with U.S. Cellular, but company officials changed their minds and decided to charge for the data.

The Nebraska Public Service Commission, which distributes money collected from a monthly surcharge on cell users' bills, is not reimbursing the county for the upgrade. The commission is awaiting a study of 911 center upgrades in the state before allocating funds for the pinpointing technology.

Even knowing it would not be reimbursed, Douglas County proceeded in implementing the system with the cell companies who provide the data for free.

"If this means that we can save one life, it would be criminal if we did not do it," said Mark Conrey, the county's 911 director.

Though Douglas County does not have to pay Sprint or Verizon, it will have to pay its telephone provider about $2,000 a year to accommodate the upgrades.

County 911 operators began pinpointing test calls Thursday from Sprint phones.

Testing will take about a week and involves making about 230 calls from throughout the county, Conrey said.

Operators now can pinpoint calls from all Sprint phones that have the positioning chips. But they'll only use the technology for select calls, such as if the caller doesn't know where he or she is or if the caller cannot communicate with the operator.

The need for such technology became evident in January, when a young couple froze to death after getting lost in a snowstorm in rural Sarpy County.

Janelle Hornickel and Michael Wamsley made several emotional calls to 911 from a cell phone, but dispatchers couldn't pinpoint their location. And the couple, who had been using methamphetamine, couldn't provide meaningful information.

With the new system, operators are given a longitude and latitude for the cell phone as well as a range to which the call can be pinpointed. Factors such as how sound a building the caller is in cause the range to vary.

Accuracy during the testing has ranged from about 30 feet to about 985 feet, Conrey said.

Testing for Verizon calls will begin in about a month, he said.

Sarpy County 911 officials are closely watching the testing, said Larry Lavelle, the county's emergency management director. They have requested data for pinpointing calls from the same providers as Douglas County.

Testing will be done in Sarpy County sometime after Douglas County is done, Lavelle said.

About 170,000 cell phone users in Douglas County have Sprint or Verizon, said Anne Boyle of Omaha, a member of the Nebraska Public Service Commission. The providers have about 45,000 customers in Sarpy County, she said.

She called the testing "a major step forward in public safety."

Boyle said she would like the commission to explore why some companies provide the pinpointing data for free, while others charge for the information.

Tracking cell phone calls

How the Douglas County 911 center will use GPS technology to pinpoint the origin of emergency cell phone calls.

1. Cell phone with built-in GPS technology uses satellites to pinpoint a caller's location by determining latitude and longitude.

2. Cell phone user calls 911 center. Coordinates are relayed from cell phone signal towers to the 911 center operators.

3. 911 center operators can then use the coordinates to pinpoint the caller's location. A map is displayed on the computer's monitor, marking the caller's location within Douglas County.

Accuracy of caller's location can be from 30 to 985 feet, depending on surrounding obstructions.

SOURCE: Douglas County 911 center

Source: Omaha World - Herald

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