Subject: [NEXTEL-1] Rockland, County N.Y. will soon answer 911 cell calls

From: "marcel_rf1" <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 21 Jul 2003 06:17:48 -0000

Rockland will soon answer 911 cell calls

By JOHN KRYGER
THE JOURNAL NEWS
(Original publication: July 15, 2003)

Rockland residents will soon be able to talk to local dispatchers
when they make 911 calls on their cell phones.

The state 911 Board has granted the county permission to have the 
emergency calls answered by Sheriff's Department dispatchers at the 
county emergency dispatch center known as 44 Control, located in the 
county Fire Training Center. County 911 officials said some calls 
would be answered locally starting Aug. 1.

The approval ends a five-year quest by the county to receive the
calls locally. They are now answered by state police, mainly in
Orange County.

"Government does work slowly, but when it does work, it's nice to
see, especially in this case," Rockland County Executive C. Scott 
Vanderhoef said yesterday. "It's important for the safety of our 
residents, and once we decided to pursue the control, our team went 
after it very vigorously."

The county formally took its request to the state board in February, 
said Pablo Ramos, the county's 911 coordinator.

Ramos said the big push came after four young men crashed into the 
woods off Route 9W near Bear Mountain in 2001.

The men, from New Jersey, called 911 but could not tell state police 
where they were. Because of that, almost six hours elapsed before
they were rescued. One man died, and the three others were 
hospitalized. The cell phone calls went to the state police at
Monroe, in Orange County.

"I remember that incident," said Maureen Landers of New City, who 
thinks the county should be answering local 911 cell calls. "I think 
this is going to be a wonderful thing. People can be outside and call 
911 in an emergency, and someone in Rockland will know where they
are. It should have been done a long time ago."

Ramos said that answering cell calls will be phased in slowly.
"We're going to bring it one carrier at a time, do some testing and 
make sure we can receive the calls," Ramos said. "We'll bring them on 
one at a time, but we are still urging residents to use their
regular, wired phone if possible for a 911 call. We can pinpoint
their address  with those types of phones."

Ramos said that the county has five major carriers - Nextel, AT&T, 
Sprint, Verizon and T-Mobile -and that he expects all cellular phone 
companies to be hooked up within six months.

He said Nextel would be first, because "it's not the biggest, but not 
the smallest."

"The equipment is in place and has been for a while," Ramos said. "It 
was just an upgrade of the existing 911 software." Ramos said the 
county will get a portion of the $10 million budgeted through the 
state for getting the 911 cell phone system up and running.

He said the calls can be handled with the current staff at 44
Control, based on statistics from the state police.

Westchester County will continue to use the state police to answer 
cellular 911 calls, and Putnam County already has requested
permission to answer its own calls, Ramos said.

Rockland legislators passed a bill in 2001 to require phone companies 
to route wireless 911 calls to 44 Control, rather than state police.
But Gov. George Pataki already had vetoed a bill in 2000 that would 
have enabled counties to take control of 911 cell-phone calls. Pataki 
cited a lack of uniform 911 training in local dispatch centers around 
the state. Since then, the state created the 911 Board to evaluate 
individual county requests to take over wireless 911 calls.

County sheriff's dispatchers already are trained to answer cellular 
911 calls and field numerous 911 calls from regular telephones every 
day.

State police have opposed losing control over 911 cell phone calls. 
State police annually collect about $19 million for answering the 
calls.

But local fire, police and emergency medical service leaders have 
complained about repeated delays due to the calls being answered by 
state police in Orange County who are not familiar with Rockland 
streets and landmarks.

Because of the nature of cell phones, which operate on radio waves, 
the calls are picked up by the nearest cell tower, and calls can be 
answered by state police in Westchester and even Bergen County, N.J. 
Those calls must then be routed to the correct local authority in 
Rockland.

Eventually, the county will be looking to upgrade the 911 
cellular-answering capacity to include enhanced 911, which can locate 
a caller.

In February the state Assembly passed legislation known as the 
Wireless 911 Local Incentive Funding Enhancement program, which would 
end unnecessary delays in 911 enhancements by providing funding 
directly to local emergency dispatch centers. The legislation, which 
was included in the current approved state budget, established a $100 
million program financed through state Dormitory Authority bonds. The 
bonds will be repaid using some of the existing wireless 911 
surcharges.

Send e-mail to John Kryger

http://www.thejournalnews.com/newsroom/071503/b0115cell911.html

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