Washington County Sheriff - Wireless 911
Sheriff's reports on cell phone 911 calls transferred to the Hartford Police Department.
Letter from the Sheriff and Attachments
Analysis of Hartford Wireless 911 Transfers (9/20 to 11/20/14)
Analysis of Hartford Administration Information
Washington County Residents,
Recent articles in the West Bend Daily News, and statements made at the October 28th Hartford Common Council meeting could give citizens of Washington County the impression that serious delays exist in the processing of cell phone 911 calls. To help assure residents that no delays or problems exist, I directed my staff to analyze the same two month period of calls cited in the news reports. I also requested an analysis of the information Hartford Administrator Koppelberger used to justify Resolution 3397 relating to the answering of cell phone 911 calls. The results of those two analyses are available for viewing in above links.
With respect to purported time delays, our analysis reveals the time it takes to answer a call, determine location, transfer and have the Hartford PD dispatcher answer, averages between 30 and 33.6 seconds for this group of calls. It is only a delay if no one is working on the call; that time is spent at the County dispatch determining the location of the caller. Since cell phone 911 technology cannot, based on location, route a specific call directly to a specific dispatch center, it is best routed to one center in a geographic area (Washington County) and then directed to Hartford, West Bend or Germantown dispatch centers once the location is determined.
As you can see from the reports, there are multiple facets to wireless 911 and the processing of those calls. As long as there is more than one dispatch center in Washington County, transfers will have to take place. It is only during that transfer (one to two rings typically in this data set) that a delay exists. However, having multiple centers answering each others’ calls and then transferring to each other is duplicitous at best, and unnecessarily confusing to the point of negligence at worst. The current process, for wireless 911 answering, within the framework of 911 technology and multiple dispatch centers, is the most effective and efficient. My position and advice to the County Board is: wireless 911 call answering will not be released to other dispatch centers.
In closing, although no operations in public safety are perfect, cell phone 911 call answering functions very well, a high percentage of the time and there is no delay problem.
Thank you,
Dale K. Schmidt, Sheriff
Washington County, WI