In an emergency, city wants to take call

Muskego - The city is not being allowed to answer 911 emergency calls from cell phones directly, and that's a problem, police say.

In fact, the city has filed a complaint with the Federal Communications Commission because of service inefficiencies in the current system, but it could be some time before Muskego gets a ruling, said John Wisniewski, Muskego's director of information services.

Instead of being answered by Muskego dispatchers, cell calls are being picked up by the Waukesha County Communications Center.

Under that arrangement, police say there is an average 72-second delay in getting the call over to Muskego, and then the caller has to repeat the same information again. The calls could be dropped, and the person with an emergency would have to call again. In addition, Muskego and other communities have had complaints about service.

Muskego police have upgraded their equipment and training so that they can field cellular 911 calls.

Cost is not a factor - it has been estimated at $500 per year if answers its own 911 cell calls directly, Wiesniewski said. A recent AT&T restructuring will bring that down as much as half, he added.

County's concerns

But WCC officials won't permit wireless providers to switch those calls to the city.

The objections from Richard Tuma, the county director of emergency preparedness who is in charge of Waukesha County Communications, boil down to four main issues:

Too few 911 cell lines go into the Muskego Police Department and only one dispatcher is there to answer the 911 calls.

About a third of 911 cell calls coming from the towers Muskego wants to divert are not from Muskego and must be responded to by other departments. A sophisticated mapping system is needed to tell where 911 cell calls are coming from and which jurisdiction needs to respond.

WCC dispatchers are practiced at guessing where problems actually are when drivers calling on cell phones report a fire or an accident without specifics.

WCC dispatchers have medical training enabling them to help callers start CPR or control bleeding.

Muskego's rebuttal

It's true that Muskego would have two lines for 911 cell calls compared to the WCC's six lines.

But Muskego officials said the number of people per line is much less in Muskego - one line per 12,067 city residents - than for WCC - one line per 64,167 county residents.

The number of Muskego residents per line will go down drastically with a new option that will enable Muskego to use two of its landlines to also answer 911 cell calls, Wisniewski said. So, the likelihood of someone calling 911 on a cell phone and getting a busy signal is slim to none.

To make the system even more foolproof, Muskego would like to have an agreement with WCC or secondary 911 cell answering points in Franklin or Menomonee Falls to take any overflows, he said.

Police Chief Paul Geiszler said that one dispatcher and a trained police clerk would be available to answer the department's total of five lines. For vacations vacations and sick days, a police officer is usually called in to help.

Two people should be sufficient, because it takes only seconds to deal the calls, even with multiple calls for the same incident, Geiszler said.

Calls coming from outside Muskego would not be a problem because the city now has the same sophisticated mapping system as WCC, Wisniewski said. The city can pinpoint cell calls and knows what jurisdiction should respond.

While Muskego has the same equipment, Tuma counters that his county dispatchers have more practice in routing calls to the right police or fire departments. The WCC takes 185 cell 911 calls per day, of which it sends an average of 2.4 cell 911 calls to Muskego.

But Wisniewski said Muskego's staff has the same training as WCC dispatchers and already are routing cell calls to the right place. Cell calls coming from T-Mobile, which is not affected by WCC's refusal, have been coming in for months, Wisniewski said.

Further, Geiszler questioned where the estimate of a third of calls coming to area towers come from outside Muskego.

And even if it's true, the police chief said, the two-thirds of calls that are coming from Muskego deserve to be served without a 72-second delay.

Finally, he said dispatchers and the clerks who help out at busy times all have received training to help get life-saving procedures under way while rescuers come.

Fruitless negotiations

Negotiations between the city and WCC have been fruitless, Geiszler said. That's why the city filed a complaint with the FCC about a month ago.

Although city officials have evidence that the FCC is working on the case, Wisniewski said he was told a ruling would be a long time in coming.

The Muskego Public Safety Committee will invite Dan Vrakas, Waukesha County executive, and Richard Tuma, the county director of emergency preparedness who is in charge of the Waukesha County Communications center, to its Dec. 7 meeting to hear the reasons as to why the WCC won't agree to the changeover.

However, committee members aren't confident either county official will accept the invitation.

"This is very disturbing," said Alderwoman Tracy Snead, Public Safety chairwoman.