Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!accuvax.nwu.edu!nucsrl!telecom-request From: Ralph Sims Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom Subject: Re: E911 Experience Message-ID: <9693@accuvax.nwu.edu> Date: 12 Jul 90 17:22:31 GMT Sender: news@accuvax.nwu.edu Organization: The 23:00 News Lines: 66 Approved: Telecom@eecs.nwu.edu X-Submissions-To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu X-Administrivia-To: telecom-request@eecs.nwu.edu X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 10, Issue 480, Message 7 of 8 chris@com50.c2s.mn.org (Chris Johnson) writes: [description of problem with a call to 911 deleted] > While I can certainly appreciate false alarms, I was rather taken > aback at how much cajoling I had to do to get any response. In fact, > who knows what might have happened if the other people had not called, > and the woman had not taken the phone from me and described the knife > to the operator. Sheeesh. > Is this how E911 is supposed to work? And why didn't they know my > location right away? I know that the switch is plenty new enough, and > we've had E911 for at least 9 or 10 years here. Perhaps the E911 equipment did not produce an ANI/ALI (Automatic Number/Location Identification) and the call-taker was trying to verify the location with the phone number. In some systems (including those that have been on line for a while), the geobase goes through growing pains and this info is not available. As an emergency services dispatcher, I cringe at the treatment you received. I do know, however, in many communities the emergency services are taxed in their resources, prompting the 911 call-takers to 'interview' the callers and hence prioritize the dispatch. In some cities, a 911 call reporting a burglary may only get a followup phone call from a detective or, at best, a visit a few days later (this is based on the 'fact' that very few burglars are caught as a result of crime scene investigation). There are many cities with abuse of the 911 system. This includes: 'The power company just cut off my lights. What can I do?" "Where can I get my pet his shots?" "Are there any fireworks displays on tonight?" "When will the cable tv channels be back on?" And so forth, with the attendant false alarms. This also prompts the PSAP (public service answering point) to interview the caller in an attempt to find out if the report is 'real'. I'm not saying this is the correct way (I'd have a hard time working in a center like this). > [Moderator's Note: Your experience was definitly NOT how 911 is > supposed to work. What sometimes happens is that although the > dispatcher usually gets an actual street address, some public > phones in parks, along the highway, etc. don't get very well identified > as to location if there is no physical street number associated with > the location. It sounds also like the dispatcher was possibly new and > not very well trained. PT] And possibly the pay phones were not included in the 911 geobase. We have basic 911 in our county, with E911 a couple of years away. The geobase will be compiled from physical surveys of all the roads and addresses within the county by the AGENCIES that will be using the service; US West will provide the phone number database and address references, but EACH address must be physically verified. As an aside, some dispatch protocols call for the call-taker to get the closest cross-street to the incident. In this county, those are sometimes five miles from that location. There's one dispatch center handling fire and medical emergencies that still asks the question. Some questions arise in the implementation of E911 systems regarding cellular phones (hitting a cell remote from location, sometimes in another county), and in office buildings with a main PBX; in the earlier days of E911, the address would come back to that of the building or the switchboard, and not the specific office within (in a building with a few hundred offices, this could be disasterous).