Lynchburg Emergency Communications Center Changing Policy
The Lynchburg Emergency Communications Center is changing its policy on handling unintentional and hang-up calls that are received on 911 from wireless (cellular) telephones.
When a 911 call is received from a wireless telephone and the caller does not immediately communicate with the dispatcher (possible unintentional call), the dispatcher will listen for background noise to determine if there is an emergency and also ascertain if the call is possibly from a speech/hearing impaired (TTY/TDD) device. If no sounds are heard that indicate an emergency and there is no response from a TTY/TDD equipment activation, then public safety personnel will not be dispatched to investigate and the call will be terminated.
If a hang-up call (disconnects prior to the dispatcher answering) is received from a wireless telephone on 911, the dispatcher will attempt a call back one time. If the dispatcher is not able to make contact with the caller, then no further action will be taken.
In the past, policy required public safety personnel to use extraordinary measures to investigate each of these calls while maintaining appropriate availability of public safety resources to address valid emergency situations. Due to the ever-increasing demand for service, a decision has been made to change the way local public safety personnel respond to unintentional and hang-up 911 calls from wireless telephones.
National statistics indicate that 40% of all 911 calls come from wireless telephones. Unintentional or hang-up calls make up about 30% of wireless 911 calls across the country. Lynchburg currently receives over 65,000 911 calls per year of which approximately 60% of those calls are received from wireless telephones. Currently, approximately 10% of the wireless 911 calls received in the Lynchburg Emergency Communications Center are unintentional or hang-up 911 calls.
For further information or questions please contact William Aldrich, Director of Emergency Communications at 455-4285.