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ID Location System

Date: Apr 13, 2005
Contributor: Nita Mcgaughy

System to help ID location of cell-phone calls

In about six months, Livingston Parish should be able to pinpoint the location of cell-phone calls made to 911, said Ronnie Cotten, the director of the parish's new 911 center, on Tuesday.
The technology will be able to give authorities the location, within 100 feet, of the spot where the call is originating, Cotten told the Rotary Club.

"I will get everything I need to get help to you then and there," Cotten said.

Getting the improved system into operation is going to take about six months of hard work, he said.

Operators now get the locationfor 911 calls made from regular phones, but get no location information other than what the caller says from 911 calls from cell phones, Cotten said.

The 911 center averages about 2,000 emergency calls per month from regular phones and 300 to 400 calls from cell phones, he said, adding the number of cell-phone calls is on the rise.

A lot of people have replaced regular phones at their residences with cell phones, Cotten said.

The problem is that 911 operators don't know where a cell-phone call is coming from, whether it is by an adult or a child, unless the caller is able to give an accurate description of the location.

That can cause problems for callers and emergency personnel, he said.

Cotten said Livingston Parish 911 operators have been getting cell-phone calls that should be going to West Baton Rouge, East Baton Rouge and Ascension parishes.

Some calls that should go to Livingston Parish are going to 911 operators in other parishes, the 911 director said.

Progress has been made in re-routing those calls without having to break the connection, he said.

Progress is also being made in dealing with poor addresses on calls made from Livingston Parish, Cotten said.

LSU students with expertise in mapping are working with the parish's 911 Board to improve existing maps by providing coordinates on address locations, he said, adding it's a big job because the parish has 80,000 phone numbers.

An additional problem is that the parish is growing so fast it is hard to keep up with new addresses, Cotten told the Rotarians.

In addition to dispatching calls to law enforcement personnel, the communications officers in the center also dispatch calls for 11 fire departments in the parish, Cotten said.




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