Is it a bad idea to call 911 from a cell phone?
I was reading about a local accident, and they said the cell phone call was directed to a State Police Highway Patrol station 40 miles away, and they had to ask where the caller was.
In the meantime, someone called from a house and the local police knew the address without asking.
No, it’s not a bad idea to report an emergency–whether by cellphone, regular phone, or smoke signals. If you do use a cellphone, though, know that you will have to tell them where you are,
I thinking calling from a cellphone beats the alternative of not getting help for a life-threatening emergency.
I’ve called 911 three times that I can remember from my cell phone:
[li] Once to report a car accident that happened right in front of me. On this occasion, in addition to giving them the location of the accident, I made sure to give them my name and cell phone number in case I was needed later as a witness.[/li][li] Once to report a woman who had parked her car and gone into a store, leaving an infant and a preschooler unattended in the car with the keys in the ignition. On that occasion, I just provided the location.[/li][li] Once again to report a car accident which had just happened, though I had not been a witness. Since I did not see my being valuable as a witness, I just provided the location of the accident.[/li]
In none of these instances did the 911 operator make me feel like I had done anything wrong by calling from a cell phone.
Hope this helps.
Would you rather not use your cell phone and not alert the authorities to an emergency?
A new system which would allow the determination of positions of 911 calls from cell phones was to have been in position shortly, if not already, but the cell companies prevailed upon the FCC or whoever to delay implementation because of the cost. Nonetheless, at some point in the near future there will be no difference between a 911 call from a cell phone and from a landline phone, at least in most places in the US.
There is a company named Allen telecom or technical something like that and they have built a trace system for Cell phones. more info here.
I was in a neighboring area code, and it was no problem to get the right 911 operator.
NOW, when you DO have an accident and you are the “victim”, do make the call yourself. The guy that hit us made a pretend call, then disappeared. Since he left his name, it was not marked down as hit and run.
In all cases I’ve had to call 911 (3), I’ve had to dial from my cell phone. Two were car accidents involving myself; the third involved the two cars directly in front of me. In all three calls, the operator asked specifically where I was located. The one time I was a bit jolted and confused, they were patient while I recollected my sanity and my senses and finally remembered where I was. (In that situation, however, my first memory after impact was seeing a woman in an SUV slow down next to my car to check on me, dialing what I assume was 911 on her cell phone–so the operators had plenty of location info.)
Also in every case, CHP was at the scene in a matter of minutes. Of course, I was on or near a major highway for each of them, but man it was good to see them get there so quickly.
As far as calling from any place other than a car, it’s just as good–as long as they get your location. After all, 911 has been around for yearslonger than the caller ID software that automatically tells them your location.
It’s never bad to call from a cell phone, whether they have your location or not. Should you somehow be ditzy enough to hangup before you state the location, at least you’ll alert police to a problem. Using a newer phone/newer roaming systems, they’re likely to be able to locate you easier than in the past.
When your call is recieved, it gets an automatic trace, often completed before the call is picked up. While cell phones are much more mobile than home phones, they still have to send the call to a landline from someplace. With 900+ mhz phones, you’re pretty much limited to line of sight for the tower, limiting the area you can be in to a few miles. This may not be too much help if you’re trapped inside of a house, but most cell calls are made from outdoors, at least the ones that aren’t likely to be repeated by others around you. More than likely, your emergency call will give enough information in those situations to give the emergency personel a clue to where you are, and while it may not be perfect, it’s better than nothing.
On the other hand, if you just call, and hang up, you won’t get 100 cops showing up at your door to to make sure everything’s all right. (My sister had a temper tantrum, and this happened.) The next generation of 911 is supposed to include a directional triangulation system for cell phones, similar to what pilots use as a backup if their regular navigation systems stop working. It would have been implemented already, but it’s being blocked by privacy groups, for obvious reasons.
Yay, using a cell phone will pin point you. That can’t be abused.
Never a bad idea to report an emergency. Just stay on the line until the dispatcher has all the information they need. Far too often people call 911 and say “there’s an accident on the freeway.” - CLICK - and hang up.
I called 911 a few years ago to report what looked like a brush fire. It was on my older analog cell phone and they were very intent on getting my phone number. Seems the analog phones don’t transmit caller ID information. I can’t disable it on my newer digital cell phone.
It’s no mystery how the 911 dispatchers know the physical location of a land based phone. The telco gave them the info long before the call was made. It comes in handy when some poor woman is getting the shit kicked out of her by her husband or boyfriend. Very often, the phone gets ripped out of the wall before the victim can give any information.
But turning cell phones into personal location devices is way beyond the line where privacy should be expected. Unless the location “service” can be selectively enabled/disabled, I don’t want it.
Sorry for the hijack.
In Los Angeles (in case different localities vary) my wife saw a car accident occur on her way home a couple of weeks back. She used her new cell phone to call 911 immediately.
It rang and rang and rang with no answer.
She arrived home within 5 minutes, and used our home phone to dial 911; that call was answered after one ring.
They informed her after she relayed the above information that cell phone 911 calls ring the CHP (California Highway Patrol).
This does not mean it is a bad idea to call from a cell phone, but it seems to me that cell phone 911 calls go to a lesser staffed agency. If I ever need to call 911 and I have both a cell phone and a wired phone equidistant, I’ll use the wired line.
Interesting. Would you happen to have a link describing this technology ?
S. Norman
I had a problem back in June in North Carolina tring to call 911 with my cell phone. It was around midnight on a real bad costal storm on I-40 and I came across a biker who had gone down. I stopped and called 911, the big problem was that I was no where near a road sign of any kind and had a problem telling them where I was. I could only remember that I was around 30 miles out side of the nearest town and I think I was off by 4-5 miles as is. They didn’t have much of a problem getting to us though.
can’t cellular phone locations be triangulated today? either that or have some GPS installed for coordinates?
Oh, where to start. I guess I should tell you that I work in the 911 industry as a Sales Engineer, so I teach this stuff all the time.
This explanation may get a little bit too tecky for some, but it will nevertheless explain the technology and what’s actually happening when you dial 911 (from a landline or mobile phone).
The US Supreme Court has already ruled (many years ago now), that a person who dials 911 is thereby automatically forfeiting their right to privacy (as it relates to their physical location and the recording of the call). It is this assumption that allows Public Safety Answering Points (PSAPs - the call centres that answer 911 calls) to look up your phone number in the telephone companies database (if you’re using a landline phone, they can tell where you’re calling from by your telephone number - that’s where they send the bills!).
Your telephone number (whether you’re calling from a landline or a mobile phone) is NOT delivered to the PSAP using Caller ID. It is delivered with a feature known as ANI (Automatic Number Identification). ANI is a network feature that cannot be enabled or disabled by the subscriber (you). Caller ID is a subscriber feature, and can be blocked by using certain codes before dialing (or for a fee this can be blocked permanently by your telephone company). ANI cannot be blocked by a subscriber, and consists of a series of MF (not DTMF if you know the difference) tones that are sent to the PSAP. The PSAP decodes these digits and looks them up in the telephone company’s database (the location or address information is known as the ALI (Automatic Location Information)) to determine where you are calling from (for a landline phone anyway). The call is then presented to a 911 call-taker with your name, telephone number and address already displayed on their screen (same thing happens if you hang-up before someone answers, by the way).
Obviously the previous paragraph establishes a direct link between a landline telephone number and an associated address (within the telephone companies database). This relationship does NOT exist with a mobile phone. The nature of the mobile phone network (acutally, multiple networks - analog cell, digital cell, GSM, TDMA, CDMA, etc.) is that it consists of multiple towers arranged in a “honeycomb” type of architecture. When you place a 911 call from a mobile phone, the network knows which specific tower is handling the call. In fact, each tower has several different “faces” each with its own area of RF propagation. Each of these “faces” is given a unique number that looks exactly like a 10 digit telephone number (you can’t actually call that number, but is “looks” like a telephone number). This number is known as the Pseudo ANI (or P-ANI). When you call 911 from the mobile phone, the telephone number of the mobile phone and the P-ANI of the cell tower face that is handling the call, is transmitted to the 911 call centre (PSAP). Rather than looking up your telephone number in the address database, the system looks up the P-ANI in the address database. This makes sense if you think about it - I live in Canada, and my mobile phone works in the States. Let’s assume that I’m roaming in New York and I dial 911. Their database DEFINITELY will NOT have my mobile telephone number in it. It will, however, have the P-ANI of the cell tower face that is handling my call (there is a finite number of these towers and faces, so therefore all of them can be entered into the address database by the telephone company).
OK - so I’ve dialed 911 in NY, and the 911 call centre has received my call. The 911 system will look up the P-ANI (the unique number that identifies the cell tower face that is handling my call) in the address database (remember - it’s called the ALI database). The address that is returned by the database will say (for example)…
The Great NY Cellular Company
Tower #46327
NE corner of 47 Avenue and 143 Street, facing NE
The 911 call-taker would be presented with this information as well as my mobile phone number (so he/she can call me back if we get disconnected - ask me in another thread, and I’ll explain how that works too). If they are using a good mapping application as well, the mapping application will show them the approximate area of propagation for the RF signal from that specific cell tower face (RF propagation is dynamic, not static, that’s why it’s approximate). This accuracy would narrow down the exact area you’re calling from to a few square miles (at best).
The technology already exists and has already begun being deployed, that will give specific x/y coordinates of a mobile 911 caller. This technology was mandated to be implemented by FCC Docket 94-102 Phase 1 and Phase 2. I won’t get into detail about this mandate here, cause it’s even more technical. This new location technology uses several different techniques to determine your exact location - Time Differentiation, Angle of Arrival, GPS, etc. Unfortunately, I normally take at least two full days of Powerpoint slides to explain this stuff, so I won’t get into further detail here. Suffice it to say that it is technically possible today, to determine from where a mobile 911 caller is calling from. If you don’t have access to it, complain to your county’s elected officials.
One of the replies in this thread mentioned that when they called 911 on their mobile, it was answered by the State Police more than 40 miles away! This is normal. For many counties in the US, 911 calls from mobile phones are answered by the State Police. This is a policy choice, not a technology choice (or mis-route). You’ll need to change your lawmakers’ decision on this one…
I hope this answers your question, and sorry for the long post. Cheers all.
I got in an accident last Saturday and called 911 from my cell phone. It was about 3 minutes of ringing before a machine answered, and another couple of minutes before I got an operator.
In CA (or at least SoCal), 911 calls from cell phones are answered by the California Highway Patrol, then routed to an agency. It takes a long time.
The paramedics who responded to our accident said that if you need to call 911 and there is a choice between a cell phone and a pay phone in SoCal, choose the pay phone every time, especially if it is really urgent.
I work for a company that makes telecom software to help PSAPs (911 call centers) locate cell phone calls. I’d give you the URL, but I’m pretty sure the anal-as-hell mods would delete my post. If you wanna know, go to Google and search for “wireless location services.” It’s the first link.
But, to re-iterate: when you call 911 on your cell phone, the location of your phone at that time CAN be tracked. And sometime in the not very far future (a couple of years, probably) every 911 cell phone call WILL be tracked.
A quick technical sketch on how cell phone tracking works, for those interested: Cell phones are just glorified two-way radios with some cute digital technology thrown in. The phone has to talk with a cell phone antenna on a cell phone tower. These towers are scattered around the cities and countryside. If the company that runs the cell phone system (Verizon, AT&T Wireless, etc, etc…) can measure the amount of time that it takes the signal from your cell phone to a tower (and they can, and do) they can multiply that time by the travel speed of a radio wave and determine your distance from the tower. Now, that distance could be in any direction, so this only gets them a circle around the tower. You must be at some point on that circle. Then, they can pick up your cell phone signal at another tower, and draw another circle. Presumably some point on this circle either touches or comes pretty close to the other circle. Then they do it again with a third tower. The third circle will come very close to some point(s) on the first two. Bingo - you’re nailed. That’s called the “TOA” technique - “time of arrival” - because it measures the time your cell phone’s signal reaches different towers. There’s also “AOA” - “angle or arrival” - which measures the angle your cell phone signal comes into three different towers, then draws intersecting lines. Then there’s “TDOA” - “time difference of arrival.” Etc. And, finally, some newer cell phones actually have a stripped-down version of GPS built in. The phone actually locates itself via GPS and then sends the info back to the tower!
If you’re worried about this, I suggest two things: A) don’t call 911 from a cell phone and B) take the battery
out of your cell phone when you’re not using it. They
can’t track you if the phone has no power. Of course, you
can’t receive incoming calls either, but…
There is a very real privacy issue surrounding this stuff, and as a person whose job it is to write software to help big brother track people’s cell phone calls, I’m continually annoyed that we don’t require a court order or search warrant in order to track your cell phone. This is just ripe for abuse…
-Ben