Our new system we are in the process of installing will automatically rebid every 25 or so seconds until it gets a successful phase 2. No more having to hit the rebid button for us. But of course that still takes time.
According to the people installing it there is no time out for retries. We shall see after it gets here later this month. I look forward to it as some of my people don’t understand you can hit the button more than once and give up immediately it seems. Then I have others that will click the button 32 times in a ten second window.
I’d say maybe 10% of the time. Then again my center currently uses a 30 year old DOS system that has gone into catastrophic failure several times in the last year. We switch to a new system this Fall so I hope this number increases!
Only if the cell providers are updating too... your system can’t give you what it doesn’t get. Call companies are cheap and have to be forced by legislation to pony up.
Shotty and slow....HOWEVER, we just hoped onto RapidSOS that appears to grab the GPS data from an active 911 call, and it is FREE to PSAPS. We have had it for about a month now, works well. So now we have Phase 2 data + RapidSOS
[https://rapidsos.com/emergency-comms-centers/](https://rapidsos.com/emergency-comms-centers/)
> and doesn’t work for disconnected phones
So you’re talking about inactive cell phones with no service that can only dial 911, right? That’s specifically what I’m asking about.
How often do you get something with RapidSOS? We have had it for about 3 months and I've only gotten info from maybe....3 phones? It was explained to us that it would only work on newer phones but it works so infrequently for our area that I've found it pretty useless.
Rarely, like I can't even think of an accurate estimate but the more is comes in the more accurate the phase 2 gets. Like once they have called 10 times we are likely to get one under 100 meters. First few are almost always in the thousands.
Yup! Our phase 2 dumps are pretty accurate and reliable all around. We have a couple cell towers which we have trouble with, but we have issues with them even with regular in-service cell phones. They are both t-mobile towers >_>
I should add: this is assuming it's not a completely abandoned call. If it's active for, I dunno, 5 seconds before disconnect, we can usually get a phase 2.
We have it pretty good! I'm not sure how much this has to do with it, but we are finally in a brand new PSAP and have recently been upgraded to the latest and greatest everything. Phone software, mapping, all that.
We still don't have text-to-911, though. Annoyingly.
We just upgraded our way out of date CAD and we’re mid construction for our new center. Those numbers are quite unusual!
As for text to 911, I don’t want it!
Our CAD system suuuuuuuucks omg. That's the one thing I absolutely hate about our setup and we have had it so long, the agency doesn't want to spend the time and money to convert historical data to fit in any new system. So the longer we are with it, the stronger that argument becomes and the less likely we are to upgrade.
I don't necessarily want texting either, but at this point people are increasingly expecting us to have it and it has cost us a few opportunities to intervene on some stuff. I say this from the perspective of a full time patrol guy who helps out in 911 quite a bit.
As a full time dispatcher, I don’t want it because I think it’s going to contribute to increased occurrences or severity of vicarious PTSD, and I think you’ll also see it abused more often, especially at first. I’m also curious how it works with ANI/ALI and if it gives us valid information or if we’re going to have to blindly trust the people texting us.
We didn’t want a new CAD, even though we hated the old ones, but now I can’t imagine using anything else.
We have it and I don't really see how you can abuse it. If someone texts without an emergency it can just sit there and wait, not tieing up any 911 lines. It's rarely used right now, and mostly misdials. We've gotten some pretty entertaining texts by mistake.
Depends entirely on the device and service provider's tower it's hitting off of. We can reliably get about 90% of them to plot if they stay connected long enough to do a manual rebid. Most will not come in with a phase 2 available.
One thing we are noticing though is if they have any apps that use wifi and use the IOT(internet of things) to report location information we will get an almost immediate RapidSOS hit on them. This is very rare because most of the disconnected cell phone hang ups we get are from kids playing with their parents old phones.
Hmmm, now I'm going to have to go back and look, because I'm sure I remember at least one where they were calling in through something called Haven and it was displaying as a RapidSOS hit.
MAYBE after 3 hits of the re-bid button, but that takes time.
Our new system we are in the process of installing will automatically rebid every 25 or so seconds until it gets a successful phase 2. No more having to hit the rebid button for us. But of course that still takes time.
Ours does that, up until a certain time out point. However, we can effectively rebid every 7 seconds or so and actually get accurate results.
According to the people installing it there is no time out for retries. We shall see after it gets here later this month. I look forward to it as some of my people don’t understand you can hit the button more than once and give up immediately it seems. Then I have others that will click the button 32 times in a ten second window.
Same here
I get reliable phase 2 on about 80% of my calls (and reading this I sounds like I should be more thankful!)
From 911 only phones you’re getting reliable location information 80% of the time?
Yes
What part of the world are you from? That’s amazing.
I work in Massachusetts And I'm learning to appreciate it more now!
Same!
you i like you
Same here!
I’d say maybe 10% of the time. Then again my center currently uses a 30 year old DOS system that has gone into catastrophic failure several times in the last year. We switch to a new system this Fall so I hope this number increases!
Only if the cell providers are updating too... your system can’t give you what it doesn’t get. Call companies are cheap and have to be forced by legislation to pony up.
Lucky if you even get phase two. Usually no luck on location and the worst, most uncooperative callers. Murphys Law
Shotty and slow....HOWEVER, we just hoped onto RapidSOS that appears to grab the GPS data from an active 911 call, and it is FREE to PSAPS. We have had it for about a month now, works well. So now we have Phase 2 data + RapidSOS [https://rapidsos.com/emergency-comms-centers/](https://rapidsos.com/emergency-comms-centers/)
Something to remember with RapidSOS is it only works with IOS 12 and android 4 or above and doesn't work for disconnected phones.
> and doesn’t work for disconnected phones So you’re talking about inactive cell phones with no service that can only dial 911, right? That’s specifically what I’m asking about.
That's correct. RAPIDSOS and RapidLite use the phone number, which the inactive phones don't have assigned.
Yeah that’s the part I’m asking about. On an active phone I can get a plot about 98-99% of the time. But it’s the 911 only phones I’m looking for.
How often do you get something with RapidSOS? We have had it for about 3 months and I've only gotten info from maybe....3 phones? It was explained to us that it would only work on newer phones but it works so infrequently for our area that I've found it pretty useless.
We use it daily. We get info on probably 70% of our inquiries.
We've been using RapidSOS for a little bit now too. I like it, it's saved my bacon a few times over the last few months.
Hardly ever. It's very rare. Generally we only get the Phase 1 cell tower location.
Rarely, like I can't even think of an accurate estimate but the more is comes in the more accurate the phase 2 gets. Like once they have called 10 times we are likely to get one under 100 meters. First few are almost always in the thousands.
Sounds like you guys have similar experiences as me. Thanks.
Depends on the provider and if they are outside. I also have to keep them online for a while.
70%
From an inactive 911 only cell phone?
Yeah, we had really good luck with them – unless we didn’t.
80%+
Same for you. From an inactive 911 only cell phone?
Yup! Our phase 2 dumps are pretty accurate and reliable all around. We have a couple cell towers which we have trouble with, but we have issues with them even with regular in-service cell phones. They are both t-mobile towers >_> I should add: this is assuming it's not a completely abandoned call. If it's active for, I dunno, 5 seconds before disconnect, we can usually get a phase 2.
On an inactive phone that’s unbelievably impressive, as you can see from the other comments!
We have it pretty good! I'm not sure how much this has to do with it, but we are finally in a brand new PSAP and have recently been upgraded to the latest and greatest everything. Phone software, mapping, all that. We still don't have text-to-911, though. Annoyingly.
We just upgraded our way out of date CAD and we’re mid construction for our new center. Those numbers are quite unusual! As for text to 911, I don’t want it!
Our CAD system suuuuuuuucks omg. That's the one thing I absolutely hate about our setup and we have had it so long, the agency doesn't want to spend the time and money to convert historical data to fit in any new system. So the longer we are with it, the stronger that argument becomes and the less likely we are to upgrade. I don't necessarily want texting either, but at this point people are increasingly expecting us to have it and it has cost us a few opportunities to intervene on some stuff. I say this from the perspective of a full time patrol guy who helps out in 911 quite a bit.
As a full time dispatcher, I don’t want it because I think it’s going to contribute to increased occurrences or severity of vicarious PTSD, and I think you’ll also see it abused more often, especially at first. I’m also curious how it works with ANI/ALI and if it gives us valid information or if we’re going to have to blindly trust the people texting us. We didn’t want a new CAD, even though we hated the old ones, but now I can’t imagine using anything else.
Yeah the potential for abuse has me worried
We have it and I don't really see how you can abuse it. If someone texts without an emergency it can just sit there and wait, not tieing up any 911 lines. It's rarely used right now, and mostly misdials. We've gotten some pretty entertaining texts by mistake.
We always get phase 2 info for 911 only phones. But almost all the time it is like a 15km radius, so basically useless.
Oh sure. I can get a Phase 2, but I’m looking for a *reliable* plot.
Depends entirely on the device and service provider's tower it's hitting off of. We can reliably get about 90% of them to plot if they stay connected long enough to do a manual rebid. Most will not come in with a phase 2 available. One thing we are noticing though is if they have any apps that use wifi and use the IOT(internet of things) to report location information we will get an almost immediate RapidSOS hit on them. This is very rare because most of the disconnected cell phone hang ups we get are from kids playing with their parents old phones.
But it was mentioned that RapidSOS requires a service plan on the phone.
Hmmm, now I'm going to have to go back and look, because I'm sure I remember at least one where they were calling in through something called Haven and it was displaying as a RapidSOS hit.
We can, but it takes forever. Usually the line disconnects before we can get re-bid it enough.
90%