Monday evening the Dunwoody City Council had a very busy night covering numerous topics but a routine budget item for 911 services quickly turned to a conversation on the modern day problem of calling 911 from a cell phone. Did you know if you call 9-1-1 from your cell phone, emergency responders are not always able to track your location?
Dunwoody Police Chief, Billy Grogan explained how the 911 call is sometimes routed to a call center based on the tower handling the call being located just outside the city limits. Other times, cell phones may actually be calling over Wi-Fi or VOIP which also confuses the address location, therefore, the City of Dunwoody's 911 provider Chatcomm subscribes to and accesses a secured nationwide Smart 911 database for all incoming 911 calls.
Chief Grogan stated that 80% of all calls into 911 are now coming from cell phones and only a very small number of these phones have opted in to register on the Smart 911 system.
Smart 911 registration is highly recommended as creates a safety profile for each phone within your home, it provides information on the user and even provide and medical or special notes that you would want 911 to be aware of when a call comes in.
Today almost everyone carries a cell phone and for that one time that you may need to call 911; wouldn't you want them to know more about you or the caller if you were able to do so? If it was my teenage son or an elderly parent, having important information on the caller and their possible special needs could be life-saving.
The conversation with Chief Grogan also shifted to the policies and procedures of 911 operators asking the same questions over and over on location whereby we discovered that this is a national standard when the call comes in from an unknown cell phone with limited information or location tied to it. Smart 911 registration assists with this and may speed emergency services to where they are needed.
The video from last night's conversation on 911 call routing between Chief Grogan and the City Council can be found here at the 2 hour and 22 minute time mark (2:22:00)
I highly suggest you build your family’s Safety Profile with Smart911 as it could save you frustrations during a time of high anxiety and it may just save your life.
Thanks,
John Heneghan
I’ve used Smart911 for years.
ReplyDeleteYou know what? It’s completely and utterly useless.
After being registered, I’m asked 2-3 times “what is your phone number” and “what is your location.”
Their “facts” on cellular calls - “98%” and false alarms - “98%” are those of high school dropouts.
If the DPD or others want to have a conversation, let’s.
Because between this and the idiotic “community outreach”, I am infuriated with the “policing” by Dunwoody.
They are reactive traffic cops and Walmart loss prevention. That is all.
Billy Grogan should be disgusted and embarrassed as he waltzes down the line at the July 4 parade.
I would be.
Thanks for letting me know. I had never heard about this Smart911 before. I appreciate how you keep the Dunwoody community informed about what goes on at the council meetings and other matters.
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