Island’s 911 System Has Transfer Snags

Dialing 911 on the Pacific island territory of Guam works well technically, but there are several potential snags in how the calls are handled that could complicate an emergency response. A long article in the Pacific Daily News points out that there is no Phase II cellular service, so callers must know their location exactly. Fire and medical calls are immediately handled by one of the four 911 calltakers on-duty, but law enforcement calls are transferred across the room to a police calltaker. If that call is routine, the police calltaker handles it. But if it’s an emergency, the calltaker will transfer it to one of the island’s local precinct stations so the caller can speak directly to an officer. But at least one precinct has only a single telephone line—sometimes the police dispatcher must radio the station to hang up the phone so an emergency call can be transferred. The phone system at another precinct station plays a lengthy recorded message before the call is answered. Police acknowledge some inefficiencies in how telephone calls are answered, and the island’s government says they are working to improve the 911 network.