Elk Grove PD Taking Over Cellular 911 Calls

[scannerboy02]

The Elk Grove Police Department will soon be handling all wireless 911 calls made within city limits.

These calls had been answered by the California Highway Patrol dispatch center before being transferred to Elk Grove's communications center.

Within the next few months, all wireless service providers will be updated to go to Elk Grove, speeding up the wait time before reaching a dispatcher.

Police spokesman Christopher Trim said the department had to make sure the equipment could accept and handle the wireless calls before taking over the responsibility.

The CHP will continue to handle cell phone calls on the freeway.


http://www.sacbee.com/102/story/545952.html

 

[scannerboy02]

Officer Christopher Trim, EGPD Public Information Officer
916.478.8008 (Office)
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
December 5, 2007

Elk Grove Begins Answering Cellular 9-1-1 Calls​

ELK GROVE, CA – The Elk Grove Police Department is pleased to announce that the community will begin seeing expedited response to cellular 9-1-1 calls as more calls are routed to the local police department. Over the last few months, the Elk Grove Police Department’s Communications Center has been answering 9-1-1 calls made on cellular phones (T-Mobile, Nextel/Sprint (partial) and AT&T) in the City of Elk Grove. These 9-1-1 phone calls would have previously been answered by the California Highway Patrol (CHP) and then transferred to the Elk Grove Police Department’s Communication Center. Call routing directly to the local police department greatly decreases the length of ring time in answering cellular 9-1-1 calls.
In addition, calls in close proximity to the freeway, as well as wireless service providers not listed will continue to be routed to the CHP Communications Center in Rancho Cordova. Over the next several months, all wireless service providers will be updated to route primarily to the Elk Grove Police Department’s Communications Center. Only calls on the freeway will be routed to CHP. Cellular customers with service from other providers, or anyone calling for non-emergency police response should call (916) 714-5115.
There are two types of cellular 9-1-1 calls, phase I and phase II. A phase I call will display the caller’s cellular phone number and the location of the cell site transmitting the signal to the dispatcher answering the call. Phase II calls will display the location (latitude and longitude) of the caller on the dispatchers computer screen. Most of the calls being received by Elk Grove Police Department are Phase II calls. 9-1-1 telephony equipment allows the Dispatcher to “rebid” or refresh the information so that the latitude and longitude can be updated if the caller is changing geographic locations.
With the implementation of this new technology, the Elk Grove Police Department will be able to reduce the response time to cellular 9-1-1 phone calls by directly communicating with those calling from their cellular phones in emergencies. "Anytime you can eliminate any delay in answering a 9-1-1 call for service, you're serving the community better," said Police Chief Robert Simmons. "Being able to answer cellular 9-1-1 calls directly will ensure that the Elk Grove Police Department continues to provide high levels of customer service to the community."

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[mkewman]

in addition to EGPD, Grass Valley (nevada county) is taking over cellular 911 calls.

 

[kma371]

Stockton and San Joaquin Counties do this as well, we hate it. Most of the calls give the location of the cell tower and not the actual phone. I can probably tell you where all the cell towers are just off the top of my head.

 

[Sac916]

Several smaller agencies have started the migration of cell 911. The number of citizens, calls received and Communication Center capabilities are all factors. EGPD for example, has been slowly taking cell 911 calls for quite some time. The agency has the ability to migrate via physical tower or cell service provider. Sac Sheriff who covers a large portion of the nearly 1,000 square miles of Sacramento County has not started the migration process. When it does, it will be a slow process, based on cell tower locations and workload increases.

Very few 911 calls have the exact GPS location of a caller, however when the data is recieved, it is pretty dang accurate. But it's not very helpful in an apartment complex or shopping center.

The majority of the time a cell phone number is obtained on the 911 screen, this can be referenced in CAD databases off prior contacts or calls for service.

Having CHP handling cell 911 calls GREATLY delays the response time for a Police/Sheriff's Department. CHP does their preliminary or full interview, determines jurisdiction, then transfers the 911 caller to the correct agency. This can take up to several minutes. Then the cell 911 caller has to explain their story all over again for the handling agency.

Cell towers near freeways can still be directed to CHP while towers in urban or rural areas may go to the primary Police/Sheriff dispatch center.

The other issue for the migration of cell 911 is staffing. Sac Sheriff and Sac PD needs to have the appropriate staffing level before they can accomodate the increase of 911 calls.

The FCC has accomodated medium to large agencies with their delays in 911 migration which have not met with the guidelines established.

 

[WayneH]

Stockton and San Joaquin Counties do this as well, we hate it. Most of the calls give the location of the cell tower and not the actual phone. I can probably tell you where all the cell towers are just off the top of my head.

Could just be old equipment; it's pretty common to only provide the basic info. Whereas CHP has it all. I have to perform routine 9-1-1 testing frequently and I would hate to be directed to CHP. LONG hold times on a regular basis. More and more are they shedding sectors and whole sites to the locals.

From experience, at least with the phones I've used, the GPS data can be slightly off but it's more a handset issue.

 

[Sac916]

Could just be old equipment; it's pretty common to only provide the basic info. Whereas CHP has it all. I have to perform routine 9-1-1 testing frequently and I would hate to be directed to CHP. LONG hold times on a regular basis. More and more are they shedding sectors and whole sites to the locals.

From experience, at least with the phones I've used, the GPS data can be slightly off but it's more a handset issue.

My daily experience with CHP Sacramento, the vast majority of time they only get a cell phone number on their 911 screen. At times a cell number and tower location will display. Very rarely do they have GPS hits.

Having actually used CHP Sacto dispatch equipment, their mapping system is HORRIBLE. A very well used Thomas Brothers is overused. Often times CHP has a difficult time getting a "good" geo hit without a cross street.

 

[mkewman]

i've had better luck using CHP's non-emergency toll free number than 911. shorter hold times (if any) on that line, however they don't get the caller identification info on their screen so they request a callback number at the end of the call.

 

[Radio_Lady]

Having CHP handling cell 911 calls GREATLY delays the response time for a Police/Sheriff's Department. CHP does their preliminary or full interview, determines jurisdiction, then transfers the 911 caller to the correct agency. This can take up to several minutes.

Yep, that's very true in some cases. On the other hand, (especially for larger and busier departments) having CHP as a PD/SO's "no-charge answering service" actually frees up the local agency's incoming lines and calltakers' time, and also can save them big bucks, although it's an invisible savings until the agency starts taking all the wireless calls directly. Then response times can suffer due to delays getting to incoming calls, and can result in needing to increase staffing significantly.

At LAPD for example prior to 2006, CHP transferred an average of about 10,000 wireless calls per month. During 2006 LAPD took over all the non-freeway cell sectors, which resulted in our incoming wireless call load increasing by almost 40,000 calls per month. This naturally swamped the calltakers at many times of the day, and often resulted in lengthy delays in answering incoming calls. We had no idea how valuable CHP had been to us, or how many of their calltakers were, in effect, working for LAPD.

Before the W9-1-1 calls, the percentage of calls answered within ten seconds was consistently 92%-93%. In 2007 the percentage for 9-1-1 calls declined somewhat, and wait times for non-emergency-line calls were even worse. It's estimated that it would take about 95 additional operators to bring the levels back to pre W9-1-1 times. Meanwhile they've been redeploying and reassigning people to try to match staffing with call loads as best they can.

For small cities the impact is probably a little less severe, unless they're already wall-to-wall with calls. If you have only one or two or three bodies in the room, you don't have anybody "extra" that you can put on the phone lines during a spike.

My daily experience with CHP Sacramento, the vast majority of time they only get a cell phone number on their 911 screen. At times a cell number and tower location will display. Very rarely do they have GPS hits.

Not sure what equipment they have, but it's also dependent on the data the wireless providers provide them. LAPD has Orion Mapstar, which is terrific, but it can only pinpoint Phase II calls, which were about 1/3 of the W9-1-1 calls the last I heard.

 

[PJaxx]

I don't understand those numbers. Just because LAPD answered them instead of CHP, why did the calls for LAPD jump from 10000 to 50000 in one year?

At LAPD for example prior to 2006, CHP transferred an average of about 10,000 wireless calls per month. During 2006 LAPD took over all the non-freeway cell sectors, which resulted in our incoming wireless call load increasing by almost 40,000 calls per month.

 

[Sac916]

I don't understand those numbers. Just because LAPD answered them instead of CHP, why did the calls for LAPD jump from 10000 to 50000 in one year?

Because now LAPD gets the 911 calls they never handled before. Calls that need to be transferred to other public safety agencies like Fire/EMS, CHP, and other law enforcement departments. Prior, LAPD never got those calls because CHP handled those transfers.


Not every cell 911 call in your specific region is in regards to your specific jurisdiction. It's simply a role reversal. Yes LAPD gets cell calls, but they also get the cell calls that they don't handle therefore increasing their workload. This is why medium to larger sized agencies have such a hard time with taking over cell 911. It takes a considerable increase in staffing to accomodate

 

[WayneH]

My daily experience with CHP Sacramento, the vast majority of time they only get a cell phone number on their 911 screen. At times a cell number and tower location will display. Very rarely do they have GPS hits.

I deal strictly with CHP Golden Gate which appears to be way more up to date.

 

[Radio_Lady]

I don't understand those numbers. Just because LAPD answered them instead of CHP, why did the calls for LAPD jump from 10000 to 50000 in one year?

Several other reasons too, and far and away the most significant is that CHP's operators used to screen out so many duplicate calls for us. Their PSDs are very good at determining whether a call is a dupe or not, and especially for very visible incidents it's common to get many, many calls. I don't know what their exact policies are, but they've always been quite good about not transferring too many dupes to us, but when there's any doubt, of course, they forward the wobblers to be on the safe side. Now LAPD gets all those "dupes."

Second, total W9-1-1 call volumes in California are increasing by about 20% a year. That "50,000" number is a very rough average. Last month, LAPD received 66,045 W9-1-1 calls. In prior months it's sometimes been in the 40s and even high 30s. I don't see the numbers much anymore, but I don't remember seeing anything near 66,000 calls before.

Turnabout being fair play, LAPD now gets a number of freeway calls, which then get transferred to CHP. AFAIK all the cell sites within the city of L.A. are directional, and sometimes cell site sectors that aren't "supposed to" include pieces of freeways (and therefore come to LAPD's dispatch centers) will get calls from 'em anyway. The science isn't THAT good yet. A crash on a freeway can easily generate dozens of calls in a very short time and tie up literally all the calltakers for many minutes.

Then there are the "butt calls," which are surprisingly common with cellphones. This website from Washington County, OR also refers to them as "dialarrhea" - http://www.wccca.com/unintentional_cellular_9.htmhttp://www.wccca.com/unintentional_cellular_9.htm