Issue link: https://let.epubxp.com/i/342119
28 Law Enforcement Technology July 2014 www.officer.com RADIO & DISPATCH tion accuracy of 911. Due to this, the FCC proposed a mandate to "establish interim indoor accuracy metrics that will provide approximate location infor- mation sufficient to identify the build- ing for most indoor calls," including a vertical component. The mandate will require that within 30 seconds of a call, 911 dispatchers will be able to pinpoint a caller's location to within 50 meters on the correct floor. Within five years, the FCC anticipates 80 percent of all wireless 911 calls will benefit from the capability. Appreciating the mandate, but seeing this issue as more of a pressing public safety problem, Find Me 911 Coalition conducted their survey hoping to get the FCC to move forward more quickly, suggesting no more than two years. "It's an aggressive timeframe," Barnett explains. "I'm sure (carriers) are looking at how much it would cost to drill that out. The FCC has correctly identified this as a public safety problem, and typ- ically when the safety of the public is involved, the FCC will press companies to do something right away. If imple- mented in the two-year time-frame, you will save 10,000 lives per year. How do you put a cost on that?" Find Me 911 coalition survey The FCC relies on public safety profes- sions to help them understand the real issues occurring in the field; the Test Bed Find Me 911 Coalition provided more reasons for change. "We thought it would be more helpful if there was a uni- fied set of statistics to use and base their decision on," says Barnett. The coalition had a tremendous response of 1,014 PSAP managers and employees repre- senting 15 percent of the PSAPs across the nation, big and small. The survey asked about issues faced in 911 centers focusing on wireless location accuracy. Here are some of the survey's findings: ■ 97 percent of the PSAPs surveyed indicated they had received a wireless 911 call within the last year where the caller could not tell the dispatcher his or her location ■ 82 percent of 911 personnel do not Circle 69 on Reader Service Card 97% of the PSAPs surveyed indicated they had received a wireless 911 call within the last year where the caller could not tell the dispatcher his or her location LET_26-30_LeftToDie0714.indd 28 6/25/14 12:00 PM