E-911 system improves with age

By Nancy Remsen
Free Press Staff Writer

WILLISTON -- With a single keystroke, Jessica Cucinelli connects with a caller who dialed 911 and simultaneously sees on her computer screen the caller's telephone number, address and a list of nearby fire, police and ambulance services.

On a second screen, a map appears. A flashing dot shows this call is coming from a residence next to a body of water.

"Vermont 911. What is your emergency?" Cucinelli asks with a calm professionalism that comes from 3 years of working on the front lines of the state's emergency telephone response system.

"I'm looking across the lake and there appears to be a camp on fire," the caller replies.

Even before asking for the caller's location, Cucinelli knows the lake is Maidstone in the state's northeast corner. She verifies the caller's lakeside address and telephone number and takes the caller's name. Then she asks for information about the fire. The caller says flames are visible from the windows.

"Stay on the line with me, please," Cucinelli says as she hits another key to connect with the dispatcher for the nearest fire department in Groveton, N.H. There's a brief, three-way conversation about how to reach the burning structure, then Cucinelli disconnects to answer another 911 call.

For the past five years, Vermonters, no matter where they live, have been able to dial 911 and, within an average of four seconds, connect with trained call-takers and a sophisticated computer network that speeds help to them in emergencies.

Public safety personnel agree the consumer-friendly system has operated without major glitches, even as it strives to keep up with development and changing technology. The public's growing use of wireless telephones, for example, poses one of the big challenges.

The system was turned on Nov. 17, 1998, and replaced a hodgepodge of local emergency telephone numbers. Nine, soon to be 10, call centers work together to handle nearly 200,000 emergency calls a year.

"It has made a big difference," said Lamoille County Sheriff Roger Marcoux. "It is just so much quicker for people to get emergency service."

There were skeptics when the system was conceived. Doug Brent, South Burlington fire chief and president of the Coalition of Fire and Rescue Services, says some emergency responders worried that centralized call-taking would create delays.

"A lot of people thought with 911 we were adding a step," Brent recalled, noting that call-takers at most centers gather information and pass it on to other people who then dispatch the local police, firefighters and ambulances. "How is this going to make it quicker?" some wondered, but Brent said, "The switch is like nano-seconds."

Now the growing popularity of wireless telephones has created challenges -- from less precision in determining a caller's location to over-utilization of the emergency dialing code by motorists calling in the same accidents. A month ago, the staff at Brookside Nursing Home in Bradford couldn't get through to call-takers in Williston when they sought an ambulance for a patient in cardiac arrest.

"It was unusual," said Dorothy Ruderman, nurse and administrator at the nursing home. "It rang and rang and no one answered." Her staff called the Upper Valley Ambulance Service in Fairlee directly.

John Vose, administrator for the ambulance service, said that was the third time in recent months his service received a direct call because people failed to get quick responses using 911. Each time the explanation was call-takers overwhelmed by reports of the same accidents.

"If it is a trend, or the beginning of a trend, we ought to look at how to fix it," Vose said. A new call center opening at the State Police office in Derby early next year is expected to reduce the number of calls going into Williston.

Evelyn Bailey, executive director for the Enhanced 911 Board, which oversees the systems, says the network is up to the challenges.

"From a straight technology perspective, the system has worked flawlessly since we turned it on," she said. "The service has absolutely met overall expectations," she added, "but we are always trying to raise the bar and increase the quality of the service we provide."

"What this is about is saving lives and property," Bailey said. "We can't do anything less than provide the best technology and the best people to serve the public."


Front lines


Lamoille County developed the state's first 911 system in 1978. Within a year, residents of every town in the county could dial 911 and speak to a dispatcher at the Hyde Park headquarters of the Lamoille County Sheriff's Department.

The Lamoille Sheriff's Department continues to operate a 911 call center, as do five other communities in the state. The other centers are associated with State Police field offices; the largest is in Williston.

The statewide system operates on an annual budget of $2.4 million. Vermont telephone users make monthly contributions to the Universal Service Fund to cover this cost.

Vermont has an "enhanced" 911 system, which means it offers more than the easy-to-remember, universal emergency dialing digits -- 911 -- for all phones.

Through the magic of computer technology and a lot of work changing addresses throughout the state, incoming calls are matched with phone records so the people answering the 911 calls instantly see on a computer screen the addresses and information regarding the nearest emergency service providers. Phone companies update their information daily, feeding it to Verizon, the host for the system.

In the past year, the 911 system has added map data covering the entire state. Phone numbers have been matched with locations on digital maps, so when calls are answered, close-up diagrams of streets and other landmarks pop up on a second screen at the call-takers' consoles. With the tap of a key, the map switches to an aerial photo of the location.

All the centers are staffed with certified call-takers who have been trained in telephone-answering skills, use of computer equipment and emergency first aid. Each call-taker has at hand a set of manuals with the protocols for fire, police and medical emergencies.

"Basically, we are the first person on the scene," said George Spoerl, a veteran call-taker for Lamoille County. He pulled the medical manual from the shelf on his console and said, "If someone calls us up with chest pains, we have key questions."

Bailey said the training and the standardized protocols are critical to ensure proper responses in tense situations.

"This is a tough job," she said. "You don't know what the call is. You could be listening to a murder. You could have a frantic mother whose baby isn't breathing," she said. "These people are very skilled to use their voice to help people calm down so they can get the information that is needed to help them."


Cellular challenges


Snow and sleet caught motorists by surprise last week, producing a flurry of 911 calls about cars sliding into ditches, telephone poles and other vehicles. In the midst of these emergencies, Cucinelli answered a call but found no one on the line.

She didn't hang up. "If you can't speak, press any key," she said. Nothing happened. She listened intently. "We have to determine whether or not it is an emergency."

Sometimes people in life-threatening situations such as a domestic assault or robbery dial 911 and leave the phone off the hook. Other times medical crises prevent people from doing more than dialing. In one well-publicized incident in 1999, a young woman died after she dialed 911 but did not speak. The line disconnected. A call-taker dialed back, but got no answer, then passed the information to a state police dispatcher. The dispatcher also made numerous calls, but failed to send a trooper to check out the situation.

The young woman's parents found her dead. A state medical examiner ruled she had died instantly and no one could have saved her, but her parents filed a lawsuit charging negligence. It was later dismissed.

The controversy demonstrated the need for follow-up on abandoned calls.

Back in the Williston call center, Cucinelli pressed a key on her computer to produce a high-pitched noise from the silent caller's cellular phone. She heard people talking and one said, "What's that?" Still no one came on the line. She hit the key again.

A man picked up and Cucinelli explained she's a 911 call-taker. The man wondered why she called and she said the emergency speed-dial button on his phone must have been pressed. He told her the phone was in a bag. She asked if he had an emergency. He said no. They disconnected.

Spoerl said this happens all the time. He calls them pocket calls.

"They increase in the winter," he said. His primary service area includes two ski resorts, Stowe and Smuggler's Notch, which attract lots of visitors carrying cell phones. The 911 speed dial button is pushed accidentally, he said, "and you hear them laughing on the lift."

Accidental calls are just one of the challenges posed by the increasingly popular cellular telephones. In 2002, 40 percent of all 911 calls came from wireless telephones that weren't tied to any address.

Federal law and regulations require wireless telephone companies to upgrade their technology so enhanced 911 systems will be able to hone in on a caller's location. The systems are ready, but the age of a hand set will determine if a caller's phone provides the critical information.

The oldest cellular telephones transmit no information about a caller's location; a subsequent generation of phones provide data about the transmission tower nearest to the caller.

Many of the newest phones are equipped with global positioning chips, said Richard Enright, director of engineering for Verizon Wireless in New England. "They allow the system to find you within 50 feet."

Bailey says cellular callers will continue to need to know where they are when they call 911. Even if their telephone has the latest technology, she said, "there are going to be reasons why we won't get good location information. Wireless technology is a radio. It is subject to all the limitations of radio signals."


Cellular benefits


Wireless telephones have provided their owners with a fast link to the 911 system, no matter where they are.

Sheriff Marcoux said cell phones allow emergency responders to move much more quickly in cases of missing hikers and skiers. "We don't have to wait three to four hours to see that they are lost," he said. "These people are calling when they feel they are lost."

Motorists with cellular phones have also become the eyes for emergency services on back roads and state highways -- but there's a downside.

On one of last week's inclement afternoons, motorists used cellular phones to pepper the Williston call center with reports of car crashes. Cucinelli handled several calls about vehicles in the median of Interstate 91 near Springfield. She tried to sort out whether people were reporting the same or different crashes. It was a challenge.

Brent, in South Burlington, said some emergency responders are called to the same scenes three and four times because of repeated reports from good Samaritan motorists. He and others have talked about using yellow caution tape to wrap up checked-out vehicles "like a Christmas present."

"We are trying to do something that makes it extremely obvious," he said, "that it is a car that has been checked."


New horizons


Bailey said people often ask her what is left to do, now that the E-911 system is up and running.

"As long as people are continuing to build new structures, as long as technology is developing, there's work left to be done," she said.

Even after five years, some communities have yet to complete matches between addresses and telephone numbers. Where development is brisk, local officials struggle to keep up.

The E-911 board's annual report identified the continuing challenge of phone networks at businesses, schools and resorts. These often fail to provide any information about a call's origin on a campus.

Bailey said the next challenge is to make sure the 911 system links with telecommunications systems in people's computers. She's confident of success.

"We built the system with the future in mind," she said.


Contact Nancy Remsen at 229-9141 or nremsen@bfp.burlingtonfreepress.com