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I-270 shootings
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When a man using a cell phone called 911 last week to say he was the highway sniper, there was no way for Columbus police dispatchers to identify a number or location for the calls.
A Franklin County 911 dispatcher experienced the same informational void four days later when she took a similar call.
The calls spotlight a growing hole in the emergency phone system, said Ken Borror, the county’s 911 coordinator.
"There are all kinds of horror stories about wireless calls to 911," he said.
Only two counties in Ohio — Delaware and Hocking — have 911 operations that are equipped to identify a cellular caller’s number and location.
That will change if the General Assembly approves a bill introduced in December.
House Bill 361 would add 65 cents to the monthly bill for all Ohio cell-phone users to fund automatic number and location identification for wireless calls to 911 systems statewide.
A similar bill was approved by the Ohio House in 2000 but failed to get out of a Senate committee.
Ohio is one of only seven states in the nation that have yet to find a funding source for 911 upgrades to identify wireless calls, said Roger Hixson of the National Emergency Number Association’s Ohio chapter. All other states either have a system in place or are in the process of getting one.
Franklin County’s 911 system was installed in 1987 before the advent of caller ID technology.
In the system’s first full year of operation, 2 percent of all 911 calls were placed from cell phones. That number grew to 43 percent in 2001-02.
In other words, nearly half of all callers to 911 centers in Franklin County can’t be found unless they are able to provide the dispatcher with an address or other description of their location.
And callers from cell phones who take credit for crimes — legitimately or not — remain anonymous.
"As cell phones become more popular, our 911 system moves backward," Borror said.
Upgrades are done in two phases. Phase I enables 911 operators to receive the telephone number of the cellular caller and the cell tower that is relaying the call. Phase II provides dispatchers with a precise location.
A task force that includes the wireless industry has worked on the bill, which was introduced by state Rep. Larry L. Flowers, a Canal Winchester Republican and former Madison Township fire chief.
"There is a fee for cellular users, but I am very optimistic that people will be more than willing to pay for technology so that when they call 911 the (dispatcher) will know where their call is coming from," Flowers said.
If the legislation makes it through both the House and Senate by spring, Hixson said it would take at least two years for the entire state to complete both phases of the technological upgrades.
jfutty@dispatch.com
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Copyright © 2004, The Columbus Dispatch |