911 too Busy??

After the Weed and Seed meeting, a presentation was given by Lt. Dan Howard, Commander of the Communications Division in the SLPD.

Apparently, many callers to 911 have been getting busy signals, or have been getting put on hold. Obviously, this is a disaster waiting to happen, or a lawsuit waiting to be filed.

Lt. Howard ket the crowd know that the 911 dispatch in St. Louis City recieives approximately 100,000 calls a month, and over a million a year. They handle more calls than all the municipalities in St. Louis County combined.

That being said, the dreaded 911 busy signal is due to three things:

1st- there is a finite number of calls 911 can handle in any situation, in any city, period.

2. Cell phones now account for HALF of all calls. Before the widespread use of cell phones, the city only received half the number of emergency 911 calls. Lt. Morgan gave this example: If there is an accident on 55 and Gasconade, within 3 minutes, calls from multiple cell phones all jam 911 at almost the same time, blocking access to 911 for other callers with other problems.

3. Ever since the storm hit, the non-emergency number for the police (231-1212), has been surreptitiously looping back into the 911 call que, further exacerbating the problem of busy signals for 911 callers. This technical glitch will be recitifed by ATT and the City within two weeks.

On a positive note, the city is purchasing a new, high-tech 911 system (Power 911). The police are in phase 1 of this purchase. Phase 1 is a software upgrade that lets the 911 operators reroute calls to the appropriate agency by simply pointing and clicking instead of transferring the call, which is a timesaver.

Phase 2, which will be in operation by this time next year, will enable the police to track cell phones using gps. They will know who you are, what service provider you have, and exactly where you are calling from.

Also, there were complaints of 911 operators being rude and pushy. Lt. Howard
explained that they are trained to "take over the conversation" in order to extract the vital information they need to pass on to the appropriate agency as quickly as possible.