**LEAD STORY**
More than 98 percent of the 911 calls coming into the new Chicago Emergency Communications Center are said to now be answered in two rings or less. That accomplishment has pleased the designers of the $217 million facility. But another "glitch" seems to have been found in the system. And, this problem could be dangerous. It appears that several calls a day to 911 are somehow not being connected. Technicians at the new center and at the Ameritech phone company have been looking into the problem for a while now.
According to ECC records, several calls a day are being cut off before a dispatcher can answer. These are called "abandoned calls." They may be the result of people just dialing 911 and then hanging up. But officials with the safety committee of Fraternal Order of Police, Lodge 7, a police union, say that faulty transfers from Ameritech's switching station are probably responsible.
Harold Kunz, who oversees the union safety committee, said that he recently had a meeting with the head of the new 911 center, William Corbett. Kunz said, "There are some instances where people dialed 911 and didn't get 911. We were informed that they've had some problems with Ameritech switching calls to the new center." Mr. Kunz said that the problem itself is known, but the reason why it is happening is not.
According to Kunz, this switching problem is potentially dangerous to both citizens and police. A person in a truly life-and-death situation may call 911 and be cut off. That person may not be able to have a second chance to redial 911 if they are in extreme danger or are being injured.
These problems have been reported in two days worth of dispatch records from the new ECC that were leaked to a number of press agencies. During the first 18 hours on February 7th, 5,743 calls were made to 911. Records show that 224 of the calls were considered "abandoned". During the first 12 hours of February 8th, 3,029 calls were made to 911. 87 of those calls were considered "abandoned".
The records show that 85 percent of the abandoned calls were cut off in less than two seconds. This point is important. It takes 1.6 seconds for a call to 911 to be completed. It is believed that if a person were to call 911 and then decided to hang up, it would take more than two seconds. The recorded times would seem to indicate that the problem is elsewhere and not just people "goofing around" with the phone system. It is more likely that the issue is related to a "switching problem" within the equipment itself.
William Corbett, the head of the Emergency Communications Center, said that he is investigating the problem with the abandoned calls. But he was careful to not just pin the blame on Ameritech. Corbett said that this problem and others have to be taken in perspective. He said that some bugs have been found in the huge and complex computer system and have been corrected. Other complaints, he said, were unfounded.
Chicago Police Superintendant Matt Rodriguez, through a spokesman said, "As one might expect, our objective is to have all aspects of the system working flawlessly. We're at the point now of fine- tuning the system to continue raising the performance." A spokesman for Ameritech said that the phone company has been asked by the City to investigate the abandoned calls to 911. The spokesman also said that it is too soon to say who and what is responsible for the problem.
In other complaints about the new communications system, police officers have complained that it is sometimes taking too long for dispatchers to give assignments to beat cars, even for crimes in progress. They also say that dispatchers do not always keep a record of the locations of officers on the street.
Kunz gave an example of one incident that happened in the 3rd Police District on Chicago's South Side. Two officers became involved in a fight at a fast-food restaurant during their 30 minute break. They called for a "10-1" (Officer needs help.). But the dispatcher could not determine the location of the officers, even though the locations of where the officers are taking their 30 minute break is supposed to be recorded on the computer. Kunz said, "It's extremely important that dispatchers know where officers are."
We hope in future articles we can relate some good news about how well the new communications system is working. However, the Chicago Fire Department is due to begin the change over to the new center this month. And that, most likely, could open another new "can of worms", as the Fire/EMS dispatchers learn to use the new system and add an additional call load on the computers.
(c) EmergencyNet News Service, 1996, All rights reserved.
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