Switch to cell phones drains local 911 money, officials say

FORT WAYNE – More people are deciding to rely on cell phones and do without land lines, draining a traditional source of revenue for county 911 services and possibly increasing users’ risk in emergencies, officials say.\nPhone companies include a 911 charge on the monthly bill, but the 911 charge on cell-phone bills is substantially less. Some northeastern Indiana counties already have seen a drop in 911 revenue as people switch to cell phones, The Journal Gazette reported Sunday.\nKosciusko County saw a drop of almost $56,000 in revenue from 2003 to 2004 even though money from cell-phone use increased by more than $20,000, according to records from the county auditor’s office.\n“There’s nothing coming in to replace it,” said Tom Brindle, the county 911 director.\nCounties set the monthly fee for those with traditional phone lines, and declining revenues could force some to increase those fees. But some officials are reluctant.\n“The last thing I want to do is to raise this surcharge for people that have lines because of someone too cheap to have one,” said Mitch Fiandt, 911 director for Noble County, which saw a drop of more than $56,000 in 911 reimbursements from 2005 to 2006.\n“Some people can’t afford both so drop the cell phone,” he said. “To me, a cell phone is a luxury.”\nNot everyone agrees. Lynn Siples of Avilla, Ind., has lived without a home phone for the last year, depending on her cell phone for personal and business calls. Her husband and her father, who lives with the couple, have their own cell phones. The family pays $129 a month for the three phones when they used to pay about $80 a month for one traditional phone line, she said.\nBut there’s a difference between a land line and a cell phone in a 911 emergency, officials caution. A land-based call can be traced, whereas in many counties, 911 calls made on a cell phone can’t.\nCell phones made after 2004 contain a Global Positioning System, or GPS, device that allows 911 centers equipped with the technology to pinpoint a caller’s location. Other systems give dispatchers a radius that can sometimes be 15 miles wide.\n“The technology is coming, and with funds not coming, you can’t pay for the upgrade,” said Cindy Snyder, Steuben County communications director. “The public thinks that when they call on a cell phone we can actually see where they are.”\nIf a caller cannot speak due to injury or some other reason, emergency personnel must search for the caller, wasting potentially life-saving time, Noble County’s Fiandt said.\nAn unexpected distribution of $8.1 million from the Indiana auditor’s office to county 911 centers last month has eased the situation for some counties, but officials said it likely would not last.