T he emergency call centre has changed how it deals with 911 calls from cellphones the day after receiving a letter from the chief of police saying there is a gap in the system.
From now on, police will respond with the highest priority to any 911 phone call from a cellphone where there is a sign of distress — such as a scream or a groan — said Steve Dongworth, manager of public safety communications.
“The Calgary Police Service will always be dispatched now to the billing address as soon as we have any indication of anyone being in any kind of trouble,” said Dongworth.
The issue arose after homicide investigators discovered that someone called 911 using murder victim Yanrong Cheng’s cellphone 15 hours before her death Feb. 7 and hung up.
When the 911 call taker phoned back later, a man and a young woman spoke with the 911 operator, but a woman in distress could be heard in the background — yet no police were sent to the Edgemont house.
Her husband was later charged with first-degree murder.
The incident led police Chief Rick Hanson to request changes from the city’s public safety communications centre, which handles 911 calls for police, fire and EMS.
Before the change in policy, operators could use their discretion about whether to call in police. Operators would also call the cellphone back and ask if there was an emergency.
Now, no matter what the response is, if it sounds like there’s an emergency, police will be dispatched.
“Now we’re taking away that discretion. We’re going to send (police) regardless to the billing address just on any suspicion of anything untoward going on,” said Dongworth.
In the Cheng case, it means police would have been called and perhaps the woman could have been saved.
“Now with that new policy, in that stage, we would order a Priority 1 dispatch to the billing address,” said Dongworth.
Calgary police spokesman Kevin Brookwell said the changes are what the chief was hoping for.
“We’re very, very pleased that that is happening as quickly as it’s happened and that was certainly the request from the chief, ” said Brookwell.
However, complicating the issue is the Canadian Radiotelevision and Telecommunications Commission’s decision to not provide the cellphone billing addresses directly to 911 operators.
If operators want to know where to send police, they have to call the telephone company and get the address.
The CRTC recently upgraded the country’s 911 systems for cellphone calls.
Since Feb. 1, 911 operators are given the cellphone number and phone co-ordinates, which are obtained by GPS or technology that calculates where phones are by their proximity to towers. But they are not given the name and billing address.
John Traversy, CRTC executive director of telecommunications, said the regulator spoke with police, 911 operators, phone companies and other stakeholders before the Feb. 1 changes and access to the billing address was not deemed a priority.
“The name and billing address is not provided. We didn’t think that was appropriate at the time. This is a mobile feature and we went one step better and provided precise location no matter where that subscriber is,” said Traversy.
When a call to 911 is made on a land line, the user’s name and address are provided.
Dongworth said the new locator technology is hit and miss.
“Sometimes in testing, we found the accuracy to be within three metres, which is extremely helpful to us. But if there’s any of the factors that weaken the signal — like if the phone doesn’t have GPS, if it’s a weak signal, if there’s highrise buildings in the way, if it’s a GPS phone indoors, all of those things degrade the signal — then we get where it might be within a kilometre or two. That isn’t much use to us,” said Dongworth.
smassinon@theherald.canwest.com
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