Local emergency calls to 911 could encounter an unforeseen error that Central Dispatch Director Paul Nave says he is actively working to correct. He said some calls may not be interpreted properly due to the error, leading to more preliminary questions after picking up the phone.
Nave said that due to 3G issues, some communications interoperability issues arose. For example, if a Verizon Wireless tower pings an AT&T cell user, 911 will not have access to the individual’s cell phone number, which leads to additional missing information, according to Nave.
“If you don’t send me the telephone number, then there are a lot of things that I don’t have. So you don’t get the rapid deploy, you don’t get a base to your location, and none of that happens. You only get a voice, and that concerns me,” Nave said.
Nave said that for now, for those affected calls dispatchers must ask for the caller’s phone number to obtain any information they are missing.
If dispatch receives a hangup call or doesn’t have time to gather much information, he said, they “cannot send a patrolman to investigate” because the cell tower does not detect where the caller is located.
Nave said he is contacting officials at the state level to fix the issue. He said there are more than 100 documented calls regarding the issue throughout the Commonwealth.
“I’ve already been on calls with the FCC,” he said. “There’s a liaison to the chairman of the FCC that is working on this, and then we’re going to start working on the federal level mandate that’ll hopefully resolve it so that the cell phone carriers can release that even though it’s not on their power.”
