No More 911 Filters

The California Highway Patrol (CHP) is slowly giving up its handling of cellular 911 calls across the state, reducing their workload, but loading up local agencies who have never had to handle wireless 911 calls. State law has required the CHP to handle and route cellular calls, since from the beginning that’s where the huge phones were–installed in vehicles on the roadways. Indio police officials say they’re looking to almost double their comm center staffing in the wake of taking cellular 911 calls. They have 12 full-time dispatchers, putting two or three on-duty at all times. But officials say calls are up 10-15% now, and they need more staffing to field telephone calls.