While cell phones have revolutionized communication, they have added an extra burden to the 911 emergency system and, unfortunately, funds to help pay for that burden aren’t keeping up with expenses.
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When the Grundy County 911 system went online in 1997, nearly every home in the county had a land-line telephone and paid a 911 tax (about $3) to help pay for the emergency system. Eleven years later, approximately one-half of the calls that come into the Public Safety Answering Point (PSAP) originate from a cell phone, on which there is no 911 tax, and more and more residents are doing away with their land lines altogether in favor of the cell phone. That trend is creating a deficit budget situation for the emergency system.
In addition to affecting the revenue for the county’s 911 system, the increase in cell phone usage means the county will have to take extra steps to ensure that cell phone calls that come into the PSAP can be traced.
As the county’s current system operates now, a call originating from a land line allows the dispatcher to see the number, the address where the phone is located and which fire, ambulance or law enforcement department to dispatch to the scene. By June, when mapping is completed, the system will also display where the call, made from a land line, is coming from on a map of the county.
When a cell call comes in, however, all the dispatcher sees is a line of zeroes where the phone number should be. If the caller doesn’t know where they are or is unable to speak, the dispatcher would not know where to send assistance.
That presents a challenge since 97 of 213 calls (46 percent) to Grundy County’s 911 system in January were cell calls and 126 of 221 calls to the system (57 percent) in February came from cell phones.
In addition, under the current system, cell calls do not always go to the closest 911 PSAP. For example, there have been instances when a cell phone call made in Trenton has bounced off the cell tower at Farmersville and gone to the Chillicothe 911 center.
What would solve this problem is having a 911 system that is fully Phase I and II capable. Phase I capabilities include being able to view the cell phone number when a 911 call is made. Phase II capabilities include being able to determine the location from which the call is originating. The new 911 system located in the Grundy County Law Enforcement Center has the technology to be Phase I and II compliant, but there will be added cost to take the necessary steps to ensure that all cell phone calls go to the right PSAP and can be tracked when they come in.
“Our system is capable of receiving Phase I and Phase II,” said Leon Harden, sales representative for Positron, which manufactures the VIPOR system that is located in the new law enforcement center. “They are able to receive it, but Grundy County would have to foot the bill. The technology is there, it’s available. It’s a matter of being able to pay for it.
“Paying for it” is a huge problem right now. With the decline in tax revenue from land lines, Grundy County’s 911 system has been losing money for the past several years. In 2007, the 911 Fund ended the year with an $11,016.81 deficit. Revenues totaled $87,624.26, with expenditures totaling $98,640.44. A $10,000 transfer from the Ambulance Fund to 911 allowed the county to start 2008 with $7,900.66 in funds available. Only $76,000 is expected in tax revenue this year, with another $1,000 expected in interest and $20,000 being transfered to the 911 Fund from the Ambulance Fund, for a total of $104,900.66. Expenditures are listed at $104,525, leaving only $375.66 at the end of the year. Without the transfer, the 911 system would have a $19,624,34 deficit at the end of the year.
Currently, information is being gathered from AT&T and Altell to determine what the cost would be to take the steps necessary to utilize the Phase I and II capabilities of the new 911 system. Once those figures are known, which could take up to six months, county officials will have to determine if the cost is worth the benefit of being able to have access to the cell phone number placing a 911 call and to have the location of the phone available on the mapping system.
With fewer land line users to help pay for 911 services and more cell phone users actually making the 911 calls, the only real solution to the problem, according to county officials, is to add a fee to cell phone subscribers for the 911 service. Currently, Missouri is the only state in the nation that does not tax cells phones to help pay for the 911 service. Voters have rejected two statewide referendums that would have placed a 911 fee on cell phones and state lawmakers have not yet passed a bill that would allow for all telecommunications devices to be taxed for 911. While some cell phone carriers have a “county tax” listed on the bill, Grundy County Clerk Kristi Urich said that to her knowledge, that tax is not for 911.
“I don’t know what it is,” she said of the tax, “but it definitely does not come to the county.”
Until such time as legislation is approved to incorporate all telecommunications devices into the current 911 tax system, counties such as Grundy will continue to struggle to pay for the service on which so many people rely.
“Legislators need to change the wording to allow cell phones to have a fee added so that they support the 911 system, as land lines have in the past,” said Grundy County Presiding Commissioner Rick Hull. “Without a fee for the cell phones the counties will have to subsidize more and more of the 911 service out of the General Revenue fund. Some legislators are trying to make this an issue about taxes, but it’s a public safety issue and we’re talking about changing the wording that would result in a $1 fee on a cell phone.”
Hull went on to say that at a recent meeting of officials from various counties, he learned that two counties are thinking about doing away with their 911 systems due to funding.
“Maybe that’s a reality that is starting to set in,” he said.