Cellular Phones

There has been a lot of misunderstanding on how cell phones work when you dial 911. Not all 911 cellular calls have the ability to give us GPS coordinates to the caller's location. It has gotten better over the last few years, but still lacking. The ANI/ALI screen, the display we have when any 911 call is placed, only shows us the phone number and cell provider. If the cell phone provider has upgraded their cell towers to Phase II, then it is possible that we'll receive GPS coordinates. If we are dealing with a "hot" call and need to know who owns the phone, we then must fax a form in to the cellular provider to request names and addresses.

We do receive calls from cell phones that currently don't have a service plan. If you get a new cell phone and give the old ones to the kids to play with, please remove the battery or make sure the battery is drained. Why? Cellular phones can still place 911 calls even if they don't have a cellular provider. It works just like the "911 phones" that are available only for calling 911. When these calls are received we get no information on our ANI/ALI screen except for which tower the signal is coming off of. That is not always trustworthy either. Our center has received 911 calls placed on cell phones from counties hundreds of miles away. Our Duluth center has even received calls from Michigan!

How does this affect my department? If you're called to assist on a search and rescue call, we may have a pinpoint location or generalized area. GPS coordinates may vary from 1 mile to 100 feet of the caller's physical location. Motor vehicle accidents are another example. In today's world just about everybody has a cell phone. Passers-by calling in the same accident or fire sometimes have totally different locations or descriptions of what is happening. We have taken 6 calls at the same time on a single incident and get 6 different versions of the incident.

Whether it's a report of smoke in the area or a house fire, please be patient with your dispatch center and always remember that we don't hold back information from you - we give you updates as we get them! We can only go by what the callers tell us. Unfortunately, all of our crystal balls are in for repairs!

If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to contact me!

Geoff Galaski
GalaskiG@co.st-louis.mn.us