If Susie Q could not be located by 911 on her cell phone five or ten years ago, now she cannot be located at all because she no longer uses a landline which has the added effect of eliminating her monthly landline surcharge – 911’s only present source of income.
 
This writer has provided several articles over the past few years covering the fact that Missouri is the only state in the union which does not have a statewide comprehensive plan to support the identification of 911 callers who dial their emergencies on cell phones.  In many parts of the state, the situation remains unchanged today so if you attempt to make an emergency 911 call from your cell phone and cannot specifically communicate where you are – you’re essentially hosed. Worse, as consumers transition away from landlines to exclusive cell use, the question now is whether there will be a 911 in Missouri to call at all.  More on this in a minute.

Currently, 911 centers in more than 30 Missouri counties cannot locate a person calling on a cell phone.  911 centers in 17 counties still cannot identify the location of a person calling from a landline! This seems hard to believe, but it is true.

Missouri’s 171 primary public safety answering points (PSAP’s) constitute a patchwork of systems that deliver fragmented and unequal levels of service when viewed from a statewide perspective.

In 2006, the state spent more than $300,000 to extensively research the condition of 911 in Missouri.  The Statewide 911 Analysis found that “the public would benefit greatly if the State were to adopt a statewide funding mechanism for 911. A statewide funding source would enable the counties that do not presently have 911 to implement the service.”

The service referred to here is E911, short for Enhanced 911, a location technology advanced by the FCC in 1996 that enables cell phones to process 911 emergency calls and enable emergency services to locate the geographic position of the caller.

Most are unaware that the state’s overall 911emergency service faces serious obstacles which threaten its very existence due to the fact that it has not kept up with changes in cell phone use and technology.   If Susie Q could not be located by 911 on her cell phone five or ten years ago, now she cannot be located at all because she no longer uses a land line which has the added effect of eliminating her monthly land line surcharge – 911’s only present source of income.

Several legislative attempts have been made in the last ten years to remedy Missouri’s 911 debacle.  The primary objective has been to create a fee on the use of cell phones in order to pay for the needed technology overhaul that would allow 911 dispatchers to locate a caller’s position – referred to as Phase II technology, as well as provide call-taker training to ensure proper call handling.

Forty-nine other states have successfully passed a wireless funding mechanism to support their 911 call centers but as Missouri crawls along, technology and phone usage are changing fast.  This is both good and bad for Missourians.

Last year, Missouri 911 directors formed the 911 Directors Association in what it states was an act of desperation to save what is effectively a failing 911 system in the state – certainly not as a result of the hard work the 911 directors do.

Senator Barnitz sponsored last year’s Senate Bill 966, but it didn’t pass the hearing process, some say because those at the hearing did not have a high enough level of understanding of the technological situation.

It is more than relevant to consider that the majority of 911 call centers are only funded by land line surcharges.  As any nine year old can tell you, land line usage in households is not going up these days.  More and more people are moving exclusively to cell phone usage, for convenience and to save money.  The aforementioned Statewide 911 Analysis report shows that as landlines go away so does the funding it provides to the 911 system.

The Governors 911 Oversight Committee’s Strategic Plan says: “As Communication Technology continues to change, land line phone usage and the funding mechanisms for 911 service associated with those landlines will diminish even more, to the point that the 911 centers depending only on a wire line tax levy funding will be forced to cease operations and close."

So when a company called SafeLink approached the state last year with a proposal to give free cell phones to low income households for an estimated $71 million dollars out of Universal service funds (which you and I currently pay for on our wireless bills), 911 directors rightly weighed in against the statewide marketing effort because it would further shrink their only source of income while increasing the number of unidentifiable cell phone calls coming into to their already overburdened system.  The state allowed the SafeLink program to proceed.

The 911 Directors Association is currently working hard to gather all the necessary data to draft a new bill for 2011 and to educate state legislators from November 3 to December 31 of this year.  Educational meetings began on October 22. The bill to be proposed would create an 80 cent monthly wireless fee on every wireless device in Missouri.

On average the fee is lower than in most states and would generate more than $40Million in revenue to support the technology overhaul needed for our 911 PSAPs and counties without a PSAP.

A four-county consolidated 911 PSAP, for those counties without equipment, would take 3 years to build and about $5 million.  Five of these consolidations across the state would cost roughly $36 million.  This would include call centers, equipment, towers and training.

The new legislation, if passed, would divide the new wireless fee tax base in the following manner:  80% to the local 911 PSAP or Governing body, 1% for state administration, 1% for a training fund and 18% for a grant fund to support next generation 911.  A 911 state board would approve grants, review 911 PSAP reporting, and encourage efficiency and effectiveness with regard to physical and/or virtual consolidation.

NOTE – The Missouri counties currently without a 911 PSAP or the necessary equipment have their calls transferred into a 7 digit land line and routed to a Sherriff’s Department which cannot display the caller’s location.

The State 911 Directors Association is advocating a 911 Board that would include a majority 911 professionals.  The newly formed 911 board’s goal would be to study and determine which areas may benefit from consolidation, provide PSAP reporting, create rules governing the use of collected funds, approve grants and impose fines for non-compliance.

To learn more about the 911 Directors Association visit: Save911.org