January 13, 2006
LAPD Starts Receiving Cell Phone Calls
Thanks to "Radio Lady" on the SoCalScan Yahoo! Group who wrote the following:
Today (1/12/06) at 0900, LAPD Communications will begin taking cellular 9-1-1 calls, beginning with Verizon cell sectors in Central Division. If all goes well, Cingular will go live next week. Central Div was chosen because it is surrounded by LAPD Areas (no outside agencies border) and has the I-5, I-10, US-101, and the "SR-110 / I-110" freeway combination running through it. Calls through any cell sector that contains a freeway will still be routed to CHP.
Verizon only has eight sectors in Central that don't have a freeway through them, so they aren't expecting a giant leap in call load until Cingular comes on line with their 135 cell towers (most with three sectors) in the Central Area. The sectors were tested yesterday morning and we passed with flying colors (the County and State 9-1-1 Coordinators were observing).
At each of the Comm Div consoles, a fifth monitor has been added and is dedicated to map displays of the city. The mapping software plots every 9-1-1 call, both cell and landline, and shows the location of the caller, the RD of the call, any duplicate calls and, if the caller is moving, can track the caller's movements. The Metro Center downtown is ready to start today. We will begin "migrating" the Valley on the 23rd with an expected cutover on the 26th (and by then, three Wireless Service Providers (WSP) will have been cutover from CHP to LAPD). Once we have all of cell sectors in Central cut-over and ringing in VCDC and MCDC, we will next bring up West Valley Division (one WSP at a time).
We will continue like this over about a one-year period, adding new providers until all five that serve Los Angeles are on line, in all 19 geographic Areas.
We currently receive approx. 10,000 "screened" calls from CHP each month. Other agencies that have taken over wireless 9-1-1 calls directly from the public have reported a 4-5 times increase in calls, so we can expect as many as 50,000 more calls a month citywide. We are taking the slow incremental approach so we can evaluate and adjust our staffing needs whether through rescheduling or with new hires. It's conceivable that the department will need to hire a significant number of new PSRs in the next year, perhaps into triple-digit numbers.
There will likely be media attention to this today, check them out for further info. This is all the info I have on it.
More info at: http://www2.dailynews.com/news/ci_3397216
(Thanks to Harry Marnell SCMA-902 for the link)
Today (1/12/06) at 0900, LAPD Communications will begin taking cellular 9-1-1 calls, beginning with Verizon cell sectors in Central Division. If all goes well, Cingular will go live next week. Central Div was chosen because it is surrounded by LAPD Areas (no outside agencies border) and has the I-5, I-10, US-101, and the "SR-110 / I-110" freeway combination running through it. Calls through any cell sector that contains a freeway will still be routed to CHP.
Verizon only has eight sectors in Central that don't have a freeway through them, so they aren't expecting a giant leap in call load until Cingular comes on line with their 135 cell towers (most with three sectors) in the Central Area. The sectors were tested yesterday morning and we passed with flying colors (the County and State 9-1-1 Coordinators were observing).
At each of the Comm Div consoles, a fifth monitor has been added and is dedicated to map displays of the city. The mapping software plots every 9-1-1 call, both cell and landline, and shows the location of the caller, the RD of the call, any duplicate calls and, if the caller is moving, can track the caller's movements. The Metro Center downtown is ready to start today. We will begin "migrating" the Valley on the 23rd with an expected cutover on the 26th (and by then, three Wireless Service Providers (WSP) will have been cutover from CHP to LAPD). Once we have all of cell sectors in Central cut-over and ringing in VCDC and MCDC, we will next bring up West Valley Division (one WSP at a time).
We will continue like this over about a one-year period, adding new providers until all five that serve Los Angeles are on line, in all 19 geographic Areas.
We currently receive approx. 10,000 "screened" calls from CHP each month. Other agencies that have taken over wireless 9-1-1 calls directly from the public have reported a 4-5 times increase in calls, so we can expect as many as 50,000 more calls a month citywide. We are taking the slow incremental approach so we can evaluate and adjust our staffing needs whether through rescheduling or with new hires. It's conceivable that the department will need to hire a significant number of new PSRs in the next year, perhaps into triple-digit numbers.
There will likely be media attention to this today, check them out for further info. This is all the info I have on it.
More info at: http://www2.dailynews.com/news/ci_3397216
(Thanks to Harry Marnell SCMA-902 for the link)
