Sheriff’s Office updates cell phone tracking technology
CHENANGO COUNTY - The Chenango County Sheriff’s Office Communications Division has added enhanced capability for locating 911 calls who are using a cell phone to seek emergency assistance.
According to Chenango County Sheriff Ernest R. Cutting Jr., finding callers who dial 9-1-1 from a cell phone has been a long standing challenge as the location information is delivered by the cell carrier, not from the actual device the caller is using. Cutting said depending on terrain and cell service strength, caller locations could be anywhere from a few feet to many miles away from where the person is actually located.
“Nearly 70 percent of the 911 calls we receive are by cell phone now,” said Cutting in a statement. “But with our rural terrain and limited cell service, locating calls can be challenging at times for our dispatchers.”
He said in October 2018, the 911 Center began using new technology available at no cost from RapidSOS to locate callers based on device location, helping to solve the long standing problem of, “why can Uber find me but 911 can’t?”
He added that the service was groundbreaking, but required dispatchers to manually query a database for each number that came in.
The upgraded service automatically displays 9-1-1 calls within Chenango County, without needing to manually query the caller’s phone number.
Cutting said in many cases, the caller’s location will plot before the phone rings in the 911 center. In addition, if the caller is in motion, their device location will automatically and continually update as they move.
“This is a game changer for us,” said Chenango County Emergency Operations Center Chief Dispatcher A. Wesley Jones. “In an emergency situation every second can be precious.”
“This can significantly cut down on the time dispatchers have to spend verifying the location of the emergency.”
Jones said the RapidSOS information includes the device location of wireless 9-1-1 calls that come in from Apple iPhones with iOS 12+ and Android devices with OS 4.0+.
“We were delivered a location by the cellphone carrier, they would send us a location based on multiple towers,” he said. “The problem is in a rural area there aren’t multiple towers to help find the location.”
“With the RapidSOS system, the location is coming directly from the device.”
He added that this system is more precise than the other system, and days after its launch it helped save an individual involved in an ATV accident.
“Two days after we went live with this system, we had an ATV accident, and the person was out in the woods,” said Jones. “The caller walked out the trail to where the person was and we were able to follow them out on the map.”
According to Chenango County Sheriff Ernest R. Cutting Jr., finding callers who dial 9-1-1 from a cell phone has been a long standing challenge as the location information is delivered by the cell carrier, not from the actual device the caller is using. Cutting said depending on terrain and cell service strength, caller locations could be anywhere from a few feet to many miles away from where the person is actually located.
“Nearly 70 percent of the 911 calls we receive are by cell phone now,” said Cutting in a statement. “But with our rural terrain and limited cell service, locating calls can be challenging at times for our dispatchers.”
He said in October 2018, the 911 Center began using new technology available at no cost from RapidSOS to locate callers based on device location, helping to solve the long standing problem of, “why can Uber find me but 911 can’t?”
He added that the service was groundbreaking, but required dispatchers to manually query a database for each number that came in.
The upgraded service automatically displays 9-1-1 calls within Chenango County, without needing to manually query the caller’s phone number.
Cutting said in many cases, the caller’s location will plot before the phone rings in the 911 center. In addition, if the caller is in motion, their device location will automatically and continually update as they move.
“This is a game changer for us,” said Chenango County Emergency Operations Center Chief Dispatcher A. Wesley Jones. “In an emergency situation every second can be precious.”
“This can significantly cut down on the time dispatchers have to spend verifying the location of the emergency.”
Jones said the RapidSOS information includes the device location of wireless 9-1-1 calls that come in from Apple iPhones with iOS 12+ and Android devices with OS 4.0+.
“We were delivered a location by the cellphone carrier, they would send us a location based on multiple towers,” he said. “The problem is in a rural area there aren’t multiple towers to help find the location.”
“With the RapidSOS system, the location is coming directly from the device.”
He added that this system is more precise than the other system, and days after its launch it helped save an individual involved in an ATV accident.
“Two days after we went live with this system, we had an ATV accident, and the person was out in the woods,” said Jones. “The caller walked out the trail to where the person was and we were able to follow them out on the map.”
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