Why emergency responders don't like cell phones
Originally published 02:16 p.m., July 3, 2008
Updated 08:57 p.m., July 3, 2008
On Tuesday, June 24, a man was impaled by a crow bar in the 3400 block of Shunga View Court.
It took emergency responders a few extra minutes to find the address because the street is not officially open.
Emergency communication services director Bill Singer said it is a problem that happens rarely.
Many cell phones come with a GPS Emergency feature that allows emergency responders to track your position when you call 911.
911 Hang-ups
If you call 911 and hang-up on a land line, operators will call you back until you answer the phone or send emergency officials to your home, but they won't do that with a cell phone. Many people have 911 on speed dial on their cell phones and accidentally call 911 by sitting on the phone or rustling through a purse. Singer says if 911 operators hear something of concern in the background like screaming, they will call the cell phone provider to ask for your address. However, if you live in a different place from where your cell phone bill goes, emergency responders will show up at that house instead of your emergency.
Still, Singer says he prefers it when people call from a land line.
"I want home phones," Singer said, "and they're becoming a thing of the past."
Workers at the construction site used a cell phone to call emergency responders when the accident happened, which is a good idea if you're outside.
However, if you use your cell phone to call emergency responders from inside a building, like at work, they say it will be much harder to find you because of the roof that blocks the signal.
And if you use your cell phone to call 911 in a place like Westridge Mall, emergency responders say they might as well be looking for a needle in a haystack.
It's a problem that's gotten so bad, they've had to change the way they answer 911 calls.
"We no longer ask 'what is your emergency,'" Singer said. "We ask, 'where is your emergency?'"
When you call 911 from a cell phone inside, 911 operators see a latitude, longitude and dot on a map which may or may not be accurate.
"The accuracy of finding you in an apartment complex is slim to none," Singer said. "In White Lakes (or) Westridge Mall, slim to none. If you're outside and you have a Sprint phone, I'll probably get within five feet."
But if you call from a land line, responders get an exact address. The bad news for them is that landlines are disappearing.
"We've lost 23,000 phones in Shawnee County over the last five years," Singer said.
Which could have emergency responders doing a lot more searching and taking more precious time to do it.
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