As budgets
get tighter more and more families and individuals are trying to cut costs
everywhere they can and one area where public safety is seeing this occur is
switching from a traditional corded telephone to a cell phone or VoIP(Voice over
Internet Protocol) telephone. While on face value both the cell phone and the
VoIP telephone sound like a great deal as there may be no charge for long
distance calls there is a potential problem if you need to call 911.
In the
Phoenix Metro area we are served by the Enhance 911 System. What this means is
when you call 911 from a telephone connected to the standard home phone line the
system recognizes the call and automatically provides the 911 operator with your
name, address and telephone number you are calling from. It also shows your
location on a map at the 911 operator’s computer screen. Another major advantage
to this system is that it directs your 911 call to the law enforcement agency
serving you and from there the proper police, fire or medical services are sent.
With cell
phones much depends on your service provider, the type of service you decide to
pay for and how new is your phone. But no matter how new and advanced your cell
phone might be when you call 911 it’s only going to give the 911 Center an area
in which you are calling from. Hopefully it will be close enough for the
emergency responders to locate you. Cell phones also have another drawback. They
work off hitting the closest tower. You could be at a location in Peoria but the
tower it hits is in Glendale or Phoenix so that’s where your 911 call will go.
It would then be necessary for that 911 Center to transfer the call to the
Peoria 911 Center. This doesn’t take much time but in an emergency time can be
critical.
The other
phones are VoIP. VoIP phones are web or computer line based and in order for
your phone to show up in the 911 Center when you call you have to have it
registered for the location you are calling from with your provider. But if you
move and fail to update your profile with your provider your call will show you
are calling from the location you registered it for and you in fact could be
cities or states away. This recently occurred in Peoria. A subject called 911
and the call came in to our 911 Center and it showed an address in Peoria. When
confirming the address, which is part of the standard procedures, the 911
operator discovered the subject was calling from Avondale.
The Peoria
Police Department would like to remind everyone one using cell phones and VoIP
phones that in an emergency if you can’t tell us where you are located we may
not be able to get to you. It’s vitally important that with VoIP phones you make
sure your address is correct with your provider. On cell phones, there’s nothing
you can do to make sure we have your address. Cell phone calls do not provide an
exact address to the 911 Center, only a radius of where the call is coming
from. This information can be several miles in diameter or it can be several
blocks. Always be prepared to provide the address of the emergency.
We understand
that costs are often an overriding concern but the Peoria Police Department
recommends you have a telephone connected to your home telephone lines. We also
suggest that you have a corded phone as in a loss of power the cordless phones
will not work.
