Zeroing in on 911 callers

MAT-SU -- Dispatch center operators in Palmer, Wasilla and Anchorage all agree that the single most important piece of information a person can provide when calling 911 is their location.

Global-positioning satellites, state-of-the-art interface mapping systems and interconnected cellular towers are all part of an ongoing effort to enhance emergency dispatchers' ability to locate 911 callers, but a person who can calmly relay their address is still the most important component of 911 response.

According to Dennis Brodigan, the Mat-Su Borough's director of public safety, enhanced-911 systems have been installed all across America in efforts to identify the phone numbers and locations of people who dial 911.

With enhanced-911 systems, a caller's information appears on the dispatcher's screen, informing the dispatcher who the last registered user of that phone was, as well as who the last resident was of the place where a call originates.

Currently, this locator technology only works with land lines, not wireless cellular phones.

Brodigan said the Mat-Su Borough has an ongoing mapping interface project to map every single plot of land in the borough and give it a name with a street address. When large tracts of land are subdivided, each of the subdivided lots must have an address.

These addresses then go to Matanuska Telephone Association so it has a record of the physical location of all homes in the Mat-Su Borough. MTA then plots all these addresses on a boroughwide map and matches the addresses to its customers living in those locations. According to Brodigan, the process is continually updated as people sell homes, move into newly built homes and change residences.

Brodigan said that in roughly 18 months, the borough hopes to get software that will make the mapping process more efficient and faster. He said the entire process has a natural delay because someone from MTA must physically come out and assign a new phone number to each house before the phone number and the address can be matched and plugged into MTA's automated telephone number and location mapping system.

As far as mapping cell phones, the borough is still in what is called phase one of the wireless-phone initiative.

The Federal Communications Commission issued a mandate that all emergency dispatchers be able to track wireless cellular-phone calls to their physical location.

In phase one of the mandate, cellular-phone carriers in the Mat-Su Borough need only know from which tower a cell-phone call originates. This does not accurately pinpoint the location of the caller, however, because calls originating from a wide range of areas are all picked up by the same towers. By Dec. 31, 2005, however, all dispatchers must be fully compliant with phase two, which means they must be capable of tracing cellular calls.

A good example of the need for this service occurred recently when a cellular caller at Mile 11.8 Knik-Goose Bay Road called 911 and the call was picked up by an Anchorage tower.

The Anchorage Emergency Coordination Center could not tell where the call originated. According to Anchorage Police Sgt. Richard Stouff, this will change later this year when Anchorage moves into phase two of its wireless- phone initiative.

By the end of this week Stouff said Anchorage plans to begin testing its new system, with hopes of tracking cellular-phone calls by Oct. 15 using global-positioning satellites through cellular provider ACS Wireless. Other cellular providers in Anchorage must have cellular-tracking capabilities within six months, according to Stouff.

Once the system is up and running, Anchorage will have the ability to transfer cellular 911 calls to the Palmer dispatch, but won't be able to automatically transfer the location and phone number information until Palmer moves into phase two itself. In the meantime, Anchorage dispatchers plan to give Palmer dispatchers 911 caller locations verbally.

According to Brodigan, the Mat-Su Borough wants to move into phase two by no later than Dec. 31, 2005. In phase two, all cell-phone carriers have to be 911-compliant within six months of the time they are notified by the borough.

To track cellular calls, cell-phone carriers can employ either a triangulation process, using three different towers to pinpoint the location of a cellular call, or they can use a global-positioning satellite to map calls.

MTA has chosen to use the GPS system. Jackie Whitstine, MTA public relations manager, said MTA's new cell phones started getting GPS equipment installed in December 2003, however, customers should still check the back of their phones to make sure they say their phones have GPS capabilities.

The GPS capabilities are not yet operating, but providing customers with cell phones that contain GPS technology is an important initial step.

Once the new GPS system is on line, every time a person with the new GPS cell phone dials 911 from their phone, their location will come up on a dispatcher's screen.

Contact Joel Davidson at joel.davidson@frontiersman.com.