Meck Co. EMS finds obstacles as more callers use cellphones

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By Stephanie Coueignoux

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Mecklenburg County EMS Agency is faced with a new challenge as more people stop using landlines and solely depend on cellphones.
 
That is making it difficult for dispatchers to pinpoint the location of emergencies.

Reporter Stephanie Coueignoux spoke with a woman who said her husband may still be alive if she hadn't called 911 from her cellphone.

“I'm administering CPR and I'm trying so hard and I'm begging him to respond but he wasn't there,” caller Deborah Bennett told emergency dispatch May 27.

Bennett, who lives across the county line in Cabarrus County, called 911 from her cellphone after her husband had a heart attack and MEDIC answered.

"The challenge is that tower may be in a different location or county than where you're actually at,” Todd Sims, with MEDIC, said.

Calls from cellphones connect to the nearest cellphone tower and it takes time for 911 operators to trace that call to where the signal originated from.

That is why callers should tell dispatch where they are at that time.

From Jan. 1 to June 30 Mecklenburg County answered 55,770 calls and on average 60 percent were from cellphones.
 
MEDIC is now working with other counties to map neighborhoods along county lines so they can immediately pinpoint which team is closest.
 
Since her husband's death, Bennett has made it her mission to raise awareness on what to do when people call 911.
 
"Be specific," Bennett said. "Tell them your block. Tell them what side you're on. Say I'm in Cabarrus, tell them exactly so these time lapses cannot happen again." 
 
MEDIC said they will always respond to any call that comes in and send a crew out while contacting the correct response team.

Another major concern is phones that call over the Internet, MEDIC said.

VIDEO CLIP: EMS expresses concerns over Internet phones

MEDIC is now seeing more people using phones that call over the Internet -- VOIP phones that have calls with an IP address.

The concern is that if you move out of the area, your IP address remains registered in the original city. So if you call 911 from out of state, Mecklenburg MEDIC will still pick up.

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