Township working to enhance 911 call system
by: JENNIFER KELLEY
6/29/2006
It happens often: A call comes into a 911 dispatcher, but before the operator can find out the caller’s location, the call is disconnected; or, worse yet, the caller is unsure of where he or she is and gives an incorrect address, sending emergency responders to the wrong location. Critical minutes are wasted while police attempt to pinpoint where help is needed.
In Cherry Hill, however, new enhancements to the township’s emergency call system will soon help to eliminate this problem, officials said. For the last few years, Mayor Bernie Platt and council have taken major steps in providing police, fire and emergency responders the tools to identify the exact location of all incoming 911 cell phone calls, officials said. The most recent enhancement, announced last week, will allow the transfer of cell-phone call locations directly into the laptops inside police and other emergency vehicles, showing first responders the exact location of the call. Previously, dispatchers conveyed the location to officers over a radio transmission.
The newly acquired technology is expected to shave needed time off a typical emergency response, officials told The Sun.
“Seconds are precious in an emergency situation,” said Lt. Bill Kushina of the Cherry Hill Police Department. “And any time you can save a few, it’s a good thing, potentially saving lives.”
The newly acquired technology – which utilizes GPS tracking systems or other mathematical calculations, depending on the cell-phone provider – is the result of a grant from the state’s Office of Emergency Telecommunication Services. The township has been a recipient of the grant for the last few years as one of New Jersey’s Best Practice sites. Officials noted that Cherry Hill is one of only a handful of municipalities in the region with the “superior” technological foundations in place to be awarded the grant.
“This grant will enable our police and emergency management team to enhance our public welfare by giving them the most accurate information available when they are going out on a call,” Platt said. “Most calls that come into our first responders are by cell phone now, and by adding this asset to our dispatchers, we are providing another layer of safety to our residents.”
The new 911 technology will provide three improvements to the township’s emergency response team: First, a disoriented caller will not need to know his or her exact location in order to be found by police; second, during a major car accident or the like, police can get flooded with 911 calls – now, through the identification of the cell-phone transmission, an officer can discern if one of the calls is coming from the emergency site or from a separate incident; and a third use the police department can take advantage of is in identifying the motivation of a 911 call – often times bank robberies start with a fake 911 call to divert police attention away from the area, officials said. Now, police can analyze where the call is coming from and if the caller is in the vicinity of the emergency triggering their call.
After the grant money has been officially approved by the state, the township’s Information Technology team will adapt the new system into every police department vehicle and, later this year, into every fire department and emergency medical technician vehicle, officials said.
“Pinpointing the location of callers can definitely speed up the response time – officers on patrol will be able to see where the call is coming from on their vehicle’s laptop,” said Officer Paul Camtana, who heads the police department’s IT unit. “We’ll get calls from people from out of state who are in an accident on 295 and they’ll tell dispatchers they’re on the Turnpike, or people traveling through Cherry Hill who are in an accident but don’t know what the cross streets are where they’re at – and that’s in addition to the hang-up calls dispatchers get,” he added.
“We all know that time is a factor in any type of emergency situation, and it could be the difference between life and death,” Platt said. “Implementing this new program – which could reduce seconds or minutes to emergency response – is critical to us and all of our residents.”
In addition to the influx of new technology, the CHPD recently opened a state-of-the-art communications center staffed by 12 full-time dispatchers, call-takers and police officers. The center is the hub of a new 800 Mhz digital radio system recently installed throughout the township. The system’s predecessor was more than 15 years old.
The communications center handles more than 125,000 calls each year and is responsible for dispatching police units throughout the community as well as acting as the 911 answer point. When someone within the township dials 911, he or she is connected directly with the police department, which also provides an advantage in response time.
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