The suggestion from Jim Miclon, head of the dispatch center in Oxford County, to use land-line telephones instead of cellular phones to call 911 indicates a major problem for Maine. Prevailing, popular technology is making it more difficult to report, and respond to, emergencies.
And we all thought cell phones made our lives easier.
"We have wasted much time in an emergency situation just trying to figure out what town and what service to send when cell phones are used," Miclon said recently. He added, "I have stood in the communications center dispatch room watching and listening to my staff struggling to get caller and location information from cell phone callers."
(This does seemingly contradict what Miclon told us in August, when he said 85 percent of calls into the Oxford County dispatch from cell phones were handled correctly.)
Regardless, when seconds count, confusion or misunderstanding of critical information is intolerable. Miclon deserves credit for saying what many think: Emergency responders, like dispatchers, cannot direct and coordinate responses effectively with cell phone information.
This seems a failure of technology and accountability. Wireless communication providers are supposedly certified as compliant with Federal Communications Commission regulations for triangulating cell phone signals in Maine, and have been since 2005.
Miclon's sentiments — and the bizarre circumstances surrounding the response to a fire on the Dixfield-Carthage border last summer — indicate this compliance is questionable. What good is some arbitrary regulatory compliance if dispatchers cannot find people or places in an emergency?
Hastening this problem is the steady conversion of communications from wired to wireless. Cell phones are ubiquitous and convenient. More than half of 911 calls in Maine now come from cell phones, a figure that has nearly doubled since the year 2000, according to state data.
So, in reporting an emergency, people have become more likely to reach into their pockets for their cell phones, than to spring toward the nearest land-line telephone to call. And among the scores of tourists who visit Maine annually, this percentage is perhaps much higher.
This is a grave concern, as it means those who may know the least about their location or terrain are reporting emergencies through a method that cannot accurately locate them.
When Maine's E-911 system was initiated, it was built around the presence — and dominance — of land-line telephones. This foundation is rapidly becoming outdated, which indicates the need for communications officials and emergency responders to start re-thinking 911.
Miclon's concerns are a call for action. Are more towers the answer? Better technology? What role do wireless firms play, given their curious state of "compliance" with FCC regulations? At some point, confusion over a location will turn tragic. Let's not wait for that happen.
Let's be heard. Now.
Many disabled but active people depend on cell phones as their only phone because it goes where the caller goes.
Maine needs more towers is an understatement just as ISPs and phone companies need more hardware to handle the growing demand for fast, convenient data transfer.
Isn't caller location (not identity) the issue?
Northern Maine has few towers and huge tracts of landmarkless roads. The nearest hospital can be 45 minutes to 2 hours away. In situations when seconds count, "take a left where the old barn used to be" and "if you get to the Griffin farmstead you've gone too far" doesn't really work very well. More towers would take away from the natural surroundings, but that may be what is needed to help triangulate a cell phone and lead emergency workers to an injured person. Would better satilite coverage help? Better tracking equipment for call centers and emergency personel?
I've heard of cell phone companies renting out church steeples (and they pay good money for it) as a cell tower... its discreet and wouldn't 'take away from the natural environment'.
"Small minds discuss people, Average minds discuss events, Great minds discuss ideas"~E. Roosevelt
"This does seemingly contradict what Miclon told us in August, when he said 85 percent of calls into the Oxford County dispatch from cell phones were handled correctly."
No it doesn't.
Just because "We have wasted much time in an emergency situation just trying to figure out what town and what service to send when cell phones are used" doesn't mean that the agency wasn't 85% accurate when handling cell phone calls.
Your jab at Miclon wasn't necessary.
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No one claimed the
No one claimed the technology was perfect... At least they know of the issue and something needs to be done about it. There have been a couple of times when I needed to call 911 using a cell phone. I think what irritated me the most was having to tell someone my name and info and what happened-then had to be transferred to the correct dispatch center. For me, no matter where I was it took the same amount of time for rescuers to get to the scene. This goes hand in hand. Response time is not good enough and cell phone/location is not good/fast enough. However this is the real world-its not like everyone sees on tv (Trauma-Life in the E.R., etc.) I needed direction on how to care for someone who was unresponsive and dispatch hung up with me,"Oh-they'll be there in 20 min." Not good enough!
"Small minds discuss people, Average minds discuss events, Great minds discuss ideas"~E. Roosevelt