There are still too many stories about 911 call centers around the country lacking in their ability to respond the way most residents expect.

But there is good news as well, and an example is Escambia County, Fla., which installed a new mapping system that pinpoints 911 calls that originate from cell phones. The FCC requires that 67 percent of wireless calls be located within 50 meters. That may not be helpful if the caller is in a building with many stories like an apartment complex or office complex.

With the new PlantCML system, a map pops up on the call taker's monitor and displays a red and yellow circle marking the caller's address or location. Previously call takers had to type in latitude and longitude coordinates on MapQuest or Google Maps.

"It was somewhat tedious to plug those coordinates into another application or another screen," said Bob Boschen, communications division manager for Escambia County Public Safety. "Now it's just automatic on a separate monitor; there they are."

The graphics pinpoint the caller's location with a red and yellow circle as the operator maintains a conversation with the caller or dispatches a first responder. "Before, you were trying to maintain a conversation with the caller while trying to find out where they are," Boschen said. "It's a couple of fewer steps the call taker has to manage while asking the caller questions for the information they need."

The 911 center recently received a call at 3:50 a.m. from a man who had driven his car off U.S. 29 into a swamp. The man was injured and had no idea where he was. The new mapping software — using latitude and longitude coordinates from the man's cell phone — showed a map on the call taker’s computer that pinpointed where the car had left the road.

The deployment of the mapping software took place in November and December 2009 and has worked well. There’s a question about how well it will pinpoint calls from some of the older cell phones, however.

The mapping software deployment was part of three 911 projects, aided by three state grants. The first grant of $3 million helped replace equipment that ranged from five to 14 years old at 31 workstations in the three public safety answering points. The second grant ($275,000) was used to purchase supervisory software and the third ($489,000) bought the mapping software. PlantCML was used for all deployments.

The supervisory software allows the supervisor to listen in on calls and keep track of the operators. "He can see that an employee has been on the phone for three minutes, and we're not normally on the phone that long," Boschen said. "He can decide to listen in or go over and see what's going on."

It wasn't too long ago that Boschen felt the county was way behind in its ability to respond to 911 calls. The grants changed that in a hurry. "It's made a difference in several calls already."
 
[Photo courtesy of Marvin Nauman/FEMA.]