LICKING COUNTY – 911 operators fielded hundreds of winter-related and vehicle-accident calls during the past week.
Most of those calls came from cell phones.
NBC 4's Marcus Thorpe was in Licking County to GET THE BOTTOMLINE on a $450,000 project that would allow 911 operators to pinpoint a cell caller's exact location.
A panicked woman was on the line. Her cell-phone call hit a cell tower. She gave no address and no name.
911 dispatchers got a "close" location.
"It's in the neighborhood -- maybe not as close as you'd like it to be," Licking County Commissioner Tim Bubb said.
With its new enhanced geographic-information system, Licking County dispatchers can find cell callers.
There are some holes in the system, though, and officials were trying to close the gaps.
A proposed $450,000 plan would introduce location-based response system.
Enhanced 911 came to Licking County a few years ago, but the new system would make it easier for first responders to find ponds and hydrants around the city.
"Especially in the county -- where we may not know if there is a pond. We can direct fire departments to that pond. They can draft from that pond," Licking County 911 Supervisor Delores McNamara said.
The funding for the system would come from federal, state and local dollars.
It's the latest effort to make counties safer and a technology that could be used by developers, the public and the media.
"Three years ago, we didn't have the technology to even track a cell-phone user," McNamara said.
Franklin and Delaware counties also were giving the new technology serious consideration.
The system already is being used in Muskingum and Fairfield counties.
Licking County officials hoped to add their county to that list and know exactly where every caller is when the caller hears, "911. What is your emergency."
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