San Diego California DUI :

Sheriff's Department now answering 911 wireless calls


Wireless 911 calls in the jurisdiction of the San Diego County Sheriff's Department will be answered by their dispatch center beginning this month, officials said Thursday.

Such calls were previously answered by the California Highway Patrol and were then transferred to the appropriate law enforcement agency.

The process caused delays and frustration, said Hanan Harb, emergency 911 coordinator for the Sheriff's Department and San Diego County.


"I think anytime you can eliminate any delay at all in a life or death emergency, you're serving the public better," said sheriff's Capt. Mike McNally. "It can make a difference between life and death."

Sheriff's dispatchers still urge people to use a land line -- a phone wired to a residence or business -- for a 911 call whenever possible so that emergency responders can pick up specific location information.

The change has been spreading across the state since Jan. 1, 2001, as a result of Assembly Bill 1263 that allows 911 calls to go directly to local agencies rather than the Highway Patrol.

Harb said the Highway Patrol was originally designated the 911 wireless call agency because when cell phones first became popular, they were primarily used for emergencies, many of which occurred on highways and roads.

Since then, cell phone use has exploded. Last year, there were 8 million 911 emergency wireless calls in California.

"It was overwhelming the CHP," Harb said.

She said the other law enforcement agencies in San Diego County have been answering their own 911 calls for awhile. The Carlsbad Police Department was the first law enforcement agency in San Diego County to receive 911 calls from cell phones in September 2004.

It took a $1.5 million phone system upgrade at the sheriff's communications center before those dispatchers could handle wireless 911 calls directly, because the old phone system didn't provide all the call information, Harb said.

The phone upgrade was completed in February and the Sheriff's Department started accepting wireless 911 calls on May 1, Harb said.

She said the Sheriff's Department was already handling about 50 transferred 911 calls daily from the Highway Patrol before the changeover.

"We're expecting the wireless phone calls to go up to about 150 calls daily," Harb said.

She said the Sheriff's Department doesn't think any extra dispatchers or resources will be required, because the agency already has six or seven people taking about 1,500 calls a day now.

"Five hundred of those are 911, which include wireless and (land) line calls," said Harb.

McNally said the sheriff's communications center is still connecting with all the wireless providers. Since May, they have been taking Verizon calls and a few other carriers, and the goal is to eventually connect with them all, the captain said.

When calling 911 with wireless phones, people need to stay on the line and provide an address for dispatchers, McNally said. With home and business lines, people can just call 911 and leave the phone off the hook if they aren't able to talk because dispatchers get a precise address, he said.

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