Navajo County is on its way to having access to cell phone location data for emergency calls.

Assistant County Manager Homero Vela reported that the county is ready to move on to the second phase of a 911 emergency dispatch system upgrade.

According to Vela, the first phase included updating and correcting the addressing system. He noted that when the project started, the accuracy level of the geographic information system (GIS) for identifying the location of 911 callers was only 54 percent. The county spent nearly a year and a half working with cities and towns to update the system. Vela noted that the work resulted in more than 16,800 corrections.

With the updates and corrections completed, the county’s 911 GIS system is now estimated to have an accuracy level of 96 percent. All future GIS data will be forwarded to the county, which will add it to existing logs to keep the information current.

Vela explained that the next phase will be to work with cell phone carriers to upgrade the GIS system to include location information for 911 callers using cell phones. Under the current system, dispatchers receive only a general location based on the cell phone tower receiving the caller’s signal.

The new 911 system will allow dispatchers to receive exact coordinates indicating the caller’s exact location, even if they make the call from a cell phone. According to the National Emergency Number Association (NENA), roughly 60 percent of all emergency calls are made from cell phones. By receiving an exact location, dispatchers can route emergency responders even if callers are unable to give or do not know the address of their location. Coordinates received by the dispatch system from cellular callers will be placed on top of a map, giving dispatchers an exact location for the caller.

Vela noted that the new system will be especially useful if a county-wide emergency dispatch center becomes a reality. City and county officials have been in negotiations to open a single dispatch center that would serve the entire county, excluding reservation land. The GIS information will then be available to all agencies utilizing the dispatch center, including law enforcement, medical and fire services.