Although dialing 9-1-1 in case of emergency is still the most reliable means of getting help, new technology has been outpacing the emergency communication system.
Hudson County is moving quickly to catch up.
The question of how effective the 9-1-1 system surfaced in late September when someone called to report hearing screaming coming from a Jersey City apartment building where three people were being stabbed to death.
While the Jersey City police responded to the site quickly enough, the caller had given the wrong address, and police responded to a vacant lot instead. A later call to the county 9-1-1 system provided more accurate information, but by that time, the three people were dead.
According to county officials, at least one of three calls made to the 9-1-1 dealing with the stabbings came via cellular telephone. And cellular telephone services and those using the internet have caused significant problems for the 9-1-1 system. While the federal government has mandated cellular phone companies to provide a means by which 9-1-1 can trace calls to a location, service providers have been slow to respond.
This has been a nightmare for emergency response systems because 70 to 80 percent of the county’s 911 calls now come by way of cellular telephone.
In a normal 9-1-1 call, the address of the caller pops up on the screen automatically providing the 9-1-1 staff with the precise information necessary for an accurate response. For cellular telephones, 9-1-1 call-takers have been forced to rely on information given by the caller.
When someone calls 911 from a traditional or landline phone, the caller’s location comes up on the computer and the call-taker sends the information to the nearest public safety provider. But when a call comes from a wireless phone, the call-taker sees a blank screen and must rely on the information the caller gives.
Connolly said last year, they got a call about a man having a heart attack. While the operator managed to get part of the street name, they had to call the various towns to find out the location — a timely matter. While they eventually manages to find the information and gave local police the information, minutes matter and by having the location instantly can save lives.
“This will change once we begin the Enhanced 9-1-1 system,” said Ted Connolly, coordinator of Hudson County Regional 9-1-1.
Mandating 9-11 service for cellular telephones
Some of the problems with cellular telephone services may soon be rectified, said Hudson County Sheriff Joe Cassidy.
“We are going to be testing our new Enhanced 9-1-1 at the end of October and the system should be up and running well-before the end of the year.”
In 2002, federal legislation set up a phased-in program that required cellular phones to provide more information about a caller’s location. Phase one requires telephone company to provide a way for 911 to either find the location of the phone or the tower from which it is transmitted. Phase two forces the companies to provide a way for 911 to find a location of the phone.
Wireless carriers have been slow to implement these changes, partly because of the complexity of the technology, partly because of the significant cost to the carriers. Most are coming into compliance as phase two becomes required.
By the end of the year, Hudson County will have implemented the first phase – with two of the four cellular carriers providing the necessary technology. Verizon and Cingular Blue (formerly AT&T) will have implemented phase I by November, with Nextel-Spring and T-Mobile expected to be in compliance by this time next year.
When the enhanced program is fully implemented, a 911 call coming in from a wireless phone will provide a computer with enough information for a map display to automatically pop up, showing the exact location of the caller as well as the phone number.
Each call taker will have two flat computer screens, one will show all the municipalities with tabs programmed with the numbers of EMS, police and fire departments, state police, marine police and such. One click connects the call taker with these.
The second screen contains the mapping program that will automatically read the latitude and longitude of the incoming call. If the call comes in by traditional land line, the mapping system will give the address information and provide a map within a tenth of a mile of that location.
If the call is wireless, the mapping system will provide latitude and longitude, convert the information and then map it out on the screen.
Grant money will cover the cost of implementing the program.
The county has received $495,000 from the Department of Justice, Office of Homeland Security, Cops Technology Program to upgrade the computer system at the center.
The Sheriff’s Department has also applied for a state grant that will allow the center to begin addressing another problem – the growing use of computer systems as telephone call voice over internet protocol that currently cannot be traced to a location. This $92,000 comes from a surcharge on telephone bills throughout the state.
9 -1-1 is not a new concept.
The National Association of Fire Chiefs recommended a single number for emergencies as early as 1957. A decade later, the President’s Commission on Law Enforcement and Administration of Justice made a similar request – resulting in meetings between AT&T and the FCC, and the announcement of 9-1-1 as a nationwide emergency number in 1968. Yet by 1976, only 25 percent of the nation had such a number in place. By 1987, this rose to 56 percent and by the 1990s, 9-1-1 was available to 95 percent of the nation.
Enhanced 9-1-1 – which gave operators the exact location of the originating emergency call – began in some parts of the country in 1986.
In early 1990s, Hudson County began a county-wide 9-11 program. Nine of the 12 municipalities agreed to have the county answer their 9-11 calls
The rationale was that smaller communities often could not afford to install and keep up such a program.
“Secaucus, Bayonne and Jersey City continued to operate their own systems,” Connolly said.
Connolly said the state pushed for the county wide system and continues to push to pull in the smaller system until in order to have a comprehensive system
Yet as cellular telephones became more prevalent, the Hudson County system began to handle calls from all of the municipalities, as well as places outside Hudson County – even Manhattan. During the Sept. 11, 2001 attack on the World Trade Center, Hudson County dispatchers even received calls from the Twin Towers.
In 2005, Hudson County 9-1-1 will have handled 200,000 calls, or about 450 to 600 calls per day. Of these, about 30,000 come from Jersey City, 1,200 from Secaucus, 2,400 from Bayonne – despite the fact that these cities have their own 9-11 systems. Hudson County gets about 25,000 calls from outside Hudson County that include Manhattan, and Passaic and Essex counties. Most of the calls from the Northern portion of the New Jersey Turnpike are routed though Hudson County’s system.
The county system is staffed 24 days, seven days a week and includes three call takers and at least one supervisor.
While police officers are now routinely trained in 9 -1-1 procedures, the county recruits from a variety of areas, posting the jobs and then giving staff additional training. New recruits go through four weeks of training and then sit with an experienced operator for an additional three to four weeks.
Although the county provides service to all 12 municipalities, the county 9-1-1 is not a dispatcher, they serve a relay point passing along information to local police and others to handle the situation. Each call-taker at the county has instant access to EMS, police or fire in the towns, something that will soon be enhanced with the newly installed program.
While most of the calls are extremely serious, dealing often with life and death, the center gets a variety of calls. One call even reported loose chickens in the yard.
But the center also has issues with people that call up for non emergency calls. While no one will get a busy signal, sometimes operators at the center get bogged down by calls that can be handled by other telephone systems. Such as people calling up to ask about the time.
Frustrating and heart breaking, some of call takers. Supervisors Caroline Gomez and Michael Briamonte recall the calls they received from victims on 9/11.
In anticipation of snow storm or other natural disaster, Connolly or the Sheriff can alert staff members to be on call. If someone doesn’t show up, the call handler stays on for additional shift.
Soon the system will have an email component that will allow Connolly to communicate with each call handler.
“We are upgrading the system here to handle the new technology,” Connolly said.
Contact Al Sullivan at asullivan@hudsonreporter.com