Location Tracking Tips for 911 Calls

Video Transcript

"So one of the misconceptions I want to talk about today is the idea that when you call 911 that we know exactly where you are. It's true that if you dial 911 from a land line and you have regular telephone service it should show us the address you’re calling from and the phone number you’re calling from. However in today’s technology minded world things are different. We have things like voice over ip for home phone service and also cell phones and those two make it a little more difficult. For example if you have voice over ip you want to talk to your provider and make sure when you pick up the phone and dial 911 that get your local emergency services. One thing that happened to me before, someone called from Washington and I was in California and they needed emergency services so I had to quickly find a number in Washington to call because clearly their phone wasn’t set up correctly. So that’s something you want to look out for. With cell phones the other misconception is that you can be tracked if your cell phone has a GPS. While GPS is helpful in locating an area where a caller may be it’s actually a very broad area. It's based on the signal that you’re phone is sending to the closest cell tower. So a 911 dispatch center should get your cell phone number and an approximate idea of where you are but it’s never exact. It could be a couple of city blocks or even a ten mile wide radius depending on the situation. So that's why again its very important that you’re aware of where you are and that you tell the dispatcher the exact address or intersection or something to really help them find you because its not like TV unfortunately we don’t have a screen or a dot moving that shows us where you are."