The reporter for WKNO-FM who reported wrote the article is:

Eleanor Boudreau
WKNO-FM Reporter
901.729.8746 (office)
617.785.6390 (cell)
eboudreau@wkno.org

http://www.publicbroadcasting.net/wkno/news.newsmain/article/0/0/1695544/Mid-South.News/The.9-1-1.Cell.Phone.Conundrum.

Thanks

I don’t think anyone expects individual dispatchers to be miracle workers, nor should anyone hold (in most cases) an individual dispatcher responsible for a murderous act.

However, in 2010 agencies DO have a responsibility to provide the tools necessary to adequately perform those duties which are not only madated by local policy and procedure, but those things which are moraly “right” and possible to carry out, within the restraints of normal day to day business.

You need not download any “fancy” applications or software to locate coordinates on a map, you only need to enter them in google maps, yahoo maps, bing maps and any number of other wirely availabe map sites.

There are simply too many uses for the internet, especially given nomadic voip and wireless calls that which originate from outside many juridictions.

Given the avilability of filtering software and other applications, there simply is no valid reason to block all internet access.

[This is my opinion and in no way reflects the opinions or policy of my agency]

p.s. – my agency allows internet access at all (21) dispatch and call taking positions. We are all adults and have supervision. We deal with (occasional) violations as is required.

As for using the internet to plug-in coordinates, the article states that ALL internet capabilities are restricted in the questioned jurisdiction. I know that even in the agency I work for, we do not have internet access either, which becomes a vital role when people don’t have their exact address for where they are at in such a large city and they just give crossroads.

However, I do know that in my agency if we have an open line wireless call, where we hear something like gunshots in the background, our supervisors can do some research work with the wireless carrier to get some more information. But that is OUR policy. In the end this all boils down to policy. If she followed policy then great, don’t hold her responsible. If not, then maybe she should face some kind of punishment.

I honestly know we do not send out people to wireless 911 hang ups, unless the state got the information first (our wireless calls go through the state police 911 call centers and then are sent out to the proper cities/towns)…but then again we rarely get wireless 911 hang-up.

But just to say our 911 mapping went down, we had the lat/long, I would probably use my main computer that has the CAD on it and hop on the internet and plug in the lat/long…especially where there was clearly gunshots in the background.

There is clearly a lot of advancements in the technology but not every state has taken, or can take, part in it and it is unfortunate. But your system should be able to plot coordinates out of your jurisdication…and on top of that they should’ve called the proper jurisdication with the information and let them deal with it, at least you disseminated the information.

And if you are gonna say well they would have to keep on looking for miles because that lat/long is the tower, don’t your ani/ali screens tell you how far away from the tower in meters and how confident it is (COF and COP)???

The technology is there it just needs to be used….and it is unfortunate that this man died and wasn’t found until 10 days later, when his cell phone was pinged (which could’ve been done that night too)…

1. There are certain cellular carriers across the country that are not compliant with the higher phases of latitude and logitude ani/ali plotting. Each carrier is responsible for updating their technology and makign it available to 911 PSAPS(Public safety Answering Points).
Even if that victim was calling from a phone that had the avaialble technology it does not mean that the receving PSAP has the technology to interpret the latitude and longitude.
Consider that the plotting software is in place after a point that the cellular signal is lost the communication center would not be able to plot and narrow down the callers location. Typically the origninal lat and long is the tower site itself.

2. When the communication personel dont’ have the available technology provided by their agency they do not have the right or authority to contact a civilian, friend family member or otherwise, and provide them with information recieved from a 911 call. This could put the civilian in danger. It could damage an investigation and it could put the agency and the individiual employee at a liablity risk.

3. Most communication center IT departments have a sercurity risk with allowing the download of random 3rd party programs like google maps or other applications onto the extremtly expensive computer equipment that we use that normally has 5-10 other high priority and security protected programs used for police and fire dispatch purposes.

4. Lets consider that if she DID call some the responisble jurisdiction for the original location given by the 911 ani/ali and gave them the very limited information they had, and they responded a unit to the area what exactly do you expect them to find 1 1/2 miles from where the body was actually located?

5. At an agency our sizie, and I remind you is 2-3 times the size of the one in question, we do not have the available manpower to respond the approtriate number of untis to a hangup 911 or disconnected cellular number each time we receive one of these type calls. We can get hundreds to thousands a week if not more. We do our best to determine if there is a problem and to determine a possible location. Absent a proper location there is simply nothing we can do.

No 911 center should be held accountable for someone dying because a criminal shot them and they were unable to speak to someone and give some type of location. It’s a sad and terrible thing when anyone dies for any reason and especially so when they do so at the direct actions of a criminal event, but the blame n eeds to be placed with the crimanl and not the public safety agency that is there to help the best they are able.

Cell phones, 911 technology and other communication media(VOIP PHONES etc..) are wonderful technologies that have expanded our communication abilityand our ability to serve the public much more effiecently, however they are flawed and changing rapidly along with the technology. There is simply not enough funding for 911 centers to keep up with the technologies that are made available to the public for communications. Would you be willing to pay an extra 25-30 dollars a month on your phone bill to have state-of-the-art technology like you see on CSI (if it even exists) for a town of 40,000 people – money must come from somewhere? The demands placed on 911 centers by the fact that EVERYONE has a cell phone has increased exponentialy over the last few years. where we would get 1 call for a traffic accident now we might get 20-30 calls all which have to be answered, questioned, their safety must be considered, and all information recorded before releasing and moving to the next one and it must be done in a room at times staffed by 3-4 dispatchers, 2 of which are commited to sending resonding units to the accident before processing any calls. After the intial rush of calls, all those who got impatient and hung up have to be called back and verified that they did not have an emergency seperate from the accident, god forbid any of them were invovled in a seperate emergency like for example the shooting victim this article is based on. That is just one tiny aspect of what technology has made possible for the public and it’s 911 centers.

Todays public is woefully unaware of what is possible what is not possible and what ultimately should fall within the realm of responsiblity of a 911 operator. I don’t HAVE an Iphone nor do I want one. The fact that this dispatcher at least tried to use something that was not within his policy and procedures says that he was trying. HE however, did not shoot Mr. Wright, nor was he responsible for locating him in this particular situation from the information given in this very biased and uneducated article.