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Ever-Expanding Requirements in a Contracting Budget Environment

Calling 911 for emergencies requires just that: a phone call. To help accommodate the hearing impaired, the Federal Communications Commission has urged cell phone carriers and 911 “answering points” to gear up to allow text messages to summon emergency aid. Few dispatch centers have the equipment needed to accommodate texts for help, but Allegheny County, Pa., is one of the first who can accept them — but only if the cellular user’s phone is on the Verizon network. Hours after announcing the pilot project, 911 dispatchers got their first text to report a crime: a drunk driver. The texter was not hearing impaired, and was driving as he texted, making him as dangerous as the drunk he was reporting. “This is one that probably should have been better served by a phone call,” a county spokeswoman said. (RC/Pittsburgh Tribune Review) ...The law of unintended consequences is pretty much a given when a federal mandate is involved.
Original Publication Date: 08 June 2014
This story is in True’s book collections, in Volume 20.

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