Subject: [NEXTEL-1] Police Speeding Up Plans to Pinpoint Cellphone Calls

From: Marcel <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 12 Feb 2003 13:13:26 -0500

February 12, 2003

Police Speeding Up Plans to Pinpoint Cellphone Calls

By KEVIN FLYNN

     New York City police officials announced yesterday that they had accelerated their
plan to create a tracking system that
     would be able to pinpoint the location of emergency calls from cellphones.

The city had been scheduled to install such a system at the end of 2005, but the officials
said at a City Council hearing that they
hope to put a similar one in place within a year.

The need for it was underscored last month when four Bronx teenagers disappeared into the
waters of Long Island Sound after
making one last 12-second call to 911 from a cellphone they had on a small boat.

Operators have said the call was too short and inaudible for them to get a sense of where
it was coming from. Officials have said
that with the new technology being discussed, they might have pinpointed it to an exact
longitude and latitude.

As it turned out, no rescue units were ever dispatched that night in the Bronx because a
911 supervisor mishandled the call,
according to police officials. The incident has led to several weeks of questions about
the adequacy of 911 procedures, training
and technology, a process that included the hearing yesterday by the Council's Public
Safety Committee.

The state of Rhode Island, the city of Houston and three upstate New York counties already
have 911 systems that can track
emergency calls from cellphones. Several public officials have questioned why New York
City is lagging behind, especially since
more than $200 million has been collected in 911 surcharges from state cellphone users
since 1991.

Councilman Peter F. Vallone Jr., the chairman of the committee, said yesterday that the
surcharge fees had been inappropriately
spent on the routine costs of the state police instead of on 911 improvements, as
intended. State officials have disputed that
contention.

Other officials have said that New York City should have pushed harder for 911
improvements without waiting for state support.

The system the city is considering would be able to trace a call to within at least 328
yards, the officials said. Mapping software
for such a system is being tested this week at the 911 operations center in Brooklyn, the
officials said. If all goes well, said
Deputy Chief John Gilmartin, the commander for police technology and systems development,
wireless carriers would be told in
several months that the city is ready for the improved service.

"The carriers then are required to begin transmitting location information within six
months," he said.

Under the current system, installed late last year, the city can trace emergency calls
from cellphones, officials said, but only to the
cell tower that received the call, which can be several miles away from the actual caller.

In the Bronx incident, even if the location of the teenagers had been tracked quickly,
police officials have said the rescue crews
were probably too far away to have arrived in time because the water was so cold. The
boys' bodies have not been found.

Nonetheless, Mr. Vallone said the city's 911 response capabilities should be more robust
considering the amount of surcharges
that have been collected from cellphone users. He has sponsored a bill that calls on the
state to give the city the entire $1.20
monthly surcharge it charges cellphone users. Only a small portion now goes to the city
under the reimbursement formula in
effect.

State officials have defended their use of the 911 fees, saying they have been spent just
as envisioned by the legislation that
created the surcharge in 1991: to cover the cost of having the state police respond to the
increased volume of emergency calls
because of the widespread use of cellphones. The state comptroller's office has disputed
that view, saying the Legislature's true
intention was to bolster 911 services.

Mr. Vallone said he supported the comptroller's view and was upset that no representatives
of state government had accepted
the committee's invitation to address these issues at the hearing.

"We are outraged again by the fact that the state is not here," he told the audience in
the Council's City Hall hearing room.

Secretary of State Randy A. Daniels, who is chairman of a new board intended to promote
improvements to the 911 system,
submitted written testimony but said he could not attend because of a scheduling conflict.

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/02/12/nyregion/12EMER.html?pagewanted=print&position=top
--
    "NEXTEL-1 IT'S NOT JUST NEXTEL"
  Note The New address
Subscribe to Nextel-1: http://www.groups.yahoo.com/subscribe/NEXTEL-1

  "NEXTEL2 FOR iDEN SOFTWARE DEVELOPERS"
Subscribe to Nextel2: http://www.groups.yahoo.com/subscribe/NEXTEL2

  "WIRELESS FORUM HOMELAND SECURITY GROUP"
     The Complete Resource for Wireless Homeland Security.
Subscribe to WFHSG:  http://www.groups.yahoo.com/subscribe/WFHSG

Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/