$2.7M grant to allow 911 center to locate site of cell phone calls

MERCER, Pa. -- The Mercer County 911 Emergency Center will be able to identify the location of cell phone callers by June 2007 thanks to a $2.7 million grant from the Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency.
Currently, 911 operators can identify the location of calls made only from traditional land-line telephones.
County commissioners announced the grant at Tuesday's chief clerk's meeting, explaining the money will be used to purchase new equipment that will make the enhanced features possible.
Russ Saylor, deputy director of Emergency 911, said only a handful of Pennsylvania counties have the capability to identify the location of cell phone callers, even though these calls make up 40 percent of calls to 911 centers.
Saylor said the county's entire phone and computer system have to be replaced to offer the cell phone identification capability.
The current system is run on the obsolete Disk Operating System of computers dating from 1992, and he said when equipment breaks, replacement parts have to be taken from old computers.
The grant money comes from a $1 surcharge put on cell phone customers' bills. The money is collected by the state and then redistributed to counties through grants, Saylor added.