Senate Committee on Energy, Utilities and Communications

SENATE ENERGY, UTILITIES AND COMMUNICATIONS COMMITTEE

MARTHA M. ESCUTIA, CHAIRWOMAN

Bill No: SB 911 - Author: Dunn Hearing Date: April 5, 2005 S

As Introduced: February 22, 2005 Non-FISCAL B

DESCRIPTION

Current law requires most emergency 911 telephone calls made from cellphones to be answered by the California Highway Patrol (CHP). An alternative public safety agency (e.g. a county Sheriff) can answer the call if the call originates from a location other than a highway or county road under the CHP’s jurisdiction, provided that the CHP, the Department of General Services, and the alternative public safety agency all agree that to do so would be in the public interest.

This bill allows the 911 call to be answered by an alternative public safety agency if the call originates from a location other than a freeway.

BACKGROUND

Since 1984, when cellular telephone service was introduced, all 911 calls from cellular telephones have been answered by the CHP. At that time a cellphone caller could not be automatically located, so the presumption was that the caller was calling from the freeway, which is the CHP’s jurisdiction. If the call instead came from a location which was not the CHP’s jurisdiction, such as on a city street, the CHP would forward the call to the proper public safety agency. The forwarding of calls is problematic for 911 response because it slows the emergency response, the extra handling can cause important information to be dropped (e.g. calling number or caller location), and it creates extra work for the CHP to forward the call. Directly connecting the cellphone 911 call to the responding public safety agency would speed emergency response and eliminate unnecessary work by the CHP.

In recent years technological advancements have made it possible to locate the caller; cellphone companies and handset manufacturers are required by federal regulations to implement the technology. The ability to locate the cellular 911 caller makes it possible to directly connect the call to the public safety agency responsible for the emergency response. In 1999, when cellular companies were first implementing the location identification technology, legislation authorized cellular 911 calls to be routed directly to local public safety agencies (AB 1263 (Thomson), Chapter 981, Statutes of 2000). This direct local routing was permitted only if the call came from an area that was not the CHP’s jurisdiction and if the CHP, the local public safety agency, and the Department of General Services, who administers California’s 911 program, all agreed that to do so would be in the public interest.

All in-state telephone calls are assessed a surcharge which raises about $130 annually million to pay for the 911 service. This surcharge pays for the equipment and associated telecommunications services necessary to answer the calls. It does not pay for dispatchers.

The number of cellular 911 calls continues to rise, from about 3 million calls in 1997 to 7.8 million calls in 2004. About 1 million of those 7.8 million calls had to be transferred to other public safety agencies.

COMMENTS

This bill changes state policy to allow 911 calls coming from highways which are the CHP’s jurisdiction to be routed to non-CHP public safety agencies. The requirement that such routing can occur only with the consent of the CHP and local public safety agencies is unchanged. When contacted by Committee staff, the CHP did not oppose the bill.

POSITIONS

Sponsor:

California State Sheriffs’ Association

California National Emergency Number Association

Support:

Alameda County Sheriff’s Department

Calaveras County Sheriff’s Department

California Fire Chiefs Association

Contra Costa County Sheriff’s Department

El Dorado County Sheriff’s Department

Fire Districts Association

Imperial County Sheriff’s Department

Kern County Sheriff’s Department

Kings County Sheriff’s Department

Merced County Sheriff’s Department

Plumas County Sheriff’s Department

San Diego County Sheriff’s Department

Santa Cruz County Sheriff’s Department

Shasta County Sheriff’s Department

Stanislaus County Sheriff’s Department

Tuolumne County Sheriff’s Department

Yuba County Sheriff’s Department

Oppose:

None on file

Randy Chinn

SB 911 Analysis

Hearing Date: April 5, 2005