Subject: [NEXTEL-1] Location of 911 Cell Calls Tracked

From: [email-masked]
Date: Mon, 23 Jun 2003 16:30:06 -0400

Location of 911 Cell Calls Tracked
June 23, 2003 6:32am

Alexandria emergency dispatchers can now pinpoint the precise location of cellular
telephones used to make 911 emergency calls, making the city the first
jurisdiction in the region and one of the first in the nation to use positioning
technology.

Police and Federal Communications Commission officials unveiled a new tracking
system yesterday, showing how cell phone users from different parts of Alexandria
could call emergency dispatchers, who then could look at a computerized map
showing a small red triangle with the callers' exact position. Previously,
emergency operators could isolate a caller only within a quarter-mile of a
particular cell tower.

Officials said the new precision provides benefits to police, fire and rescue
personnel who need to get to emergencies quickly. More than 30 percent of
Alexandria's emergency calls come from cell phones, so the technology will save
time in searching for crime scenes, accidents and other situations.
"This will help violent crime victims, those in a medical emergency, witnesses who
are calling in to tell us about something -- almost any emergency situation you
can think of," said Alexandria Deputy Police Chief David P. 

Baker. "It will likely speed things up substantially because we'll be closer and
closer to treating the calls as if they're coming from a land-line phone. We'll
know where to go, even if a caller doesn't know where they are."
Such technology has obvious uses, such as when someone is abducted and has a
chance to call 911 on a cell phone, as has happened in the region. Instead of
relying on estimates and difficult triangulations, police can simply look at a
screen and know that a victim is at King Street and Commonwealth Avenue, moving
east.

The pinpoint mapping relies on a basic concept that essentially uses cell phones
as small beacons that transmit longitude and latitude coordinates. But to locate a
caller, police departments must be equipped with the new technology, wireless
service providers must have updated transmitting capabilities and callers
themselves need newer-model cell phones that are able to provide the information
the computers need to track them.

During yesterday's demonstration, a call from an AT&T Wireless phone in Alexandria
was deflected accidentally by a computer database to Arlington County's
dispatchers, negating the ability to locate the caller specifically. AT&T calls
had worked before and after the deflection, police said. Two other calls, from a
Cingular Wireless phone and a Nextel phone, both went through and allowed
dispatchers to track the callers, even as they walked down a street.

"It's such a simple-sounding capability, matched only by the complexity of putting
it in place," said FCC Chairman Michael K. Powell, who attended the demonstration
at Alexandria police headquarters yesterday, along with several wireless
telecommunications executives and consultants. Powell said Alexandria is on the
"leading edge of what we're trying to push throughout the country."
He said that over the coming years he hopes "to see more than just a
demonstration, but lives saved."

The FCC requires cell phone companies to install the infrastructure to support the
new 911 systems as well as to sell phones that are compatible with them. But it's
ultimately up to localities to bring their dispatching systems in line with the
technology, an expensive process and one that only a few jurisdictions have
completed.

Although Alexandria's system is up and running, neighboring counties are still
developing theirs. That means that a caller's exact blip on the screen could
disappear when entering a new jurisdiction.

"Right now, it depends on where you get in trouble that determines how accurately
they can pinpoint you," said Patrick E. Forester, an FCC senior engineer. "It will
take time for this technology to roll out."
Although many people believe that when they call 911 from a cell phone police know
exactly where they are, dispatchers in most places can get only a general idea.

Baker said such precision should prompt departments to invest in the new system.

"There are too many horror stories about people who have attempted to call for
help, and because police departments had no way of identifying the caller or the
location, help was either not provided or delayed," Baker said. "We just can't
have that."

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