A proliferation of car phones statewide has resulted in an explosion of 911 calls to the California Highway Patrol and raised serious doubts about its future capacity to handle them.
Statewide, 911 calls to the CHP have skyrocketed from about 29,000 in 1985 to a projected 2.8 million this year. And at the Los Angeles communications center, the busiest in the state, the number of cellular 911 calls has gone from 13,048 in 1985 to about 516,000 last year. "There are times when the phones don't stop," said Vicki Mosconi, a CHP supervisor in Santa Ana.
One result is that during peak hours, and especially when freeway accidents occur, increasing numbers of motorists get a busy signal when they call 911 from their cars. CHP officials say they have no way of tracking precisely how often that happens, but are convinced that it has grown from being an occasional occurrence to a daily one. Even those who get through, they say, often are put on hold.
"They're probably waiting two to three times longer," said Darlene Pedersen, a supervisor at the CHP's Los Angeles communications center. "That's maybe a minute to a minute and a half, compared to half a minute four years ago. If you're upset and trying to report something on the freeway, though, that minute and a half is a long time."
The problem is technology.
Unlike 911 calls from fixed points, those from cellular phones cannot be routed automatically to the appropriate local agency. Because most cellular 911 calls are coming from the road, they all go to the nearest CHP center, where operators must evaluate them, determine their point of origin and either send CHP help or transfer them to the local police or sheriff's department.
What no one anticipated was the dramatic increase in car phones in a state that now has 3.5 million cellular subscribers, a number that is expanding by about 40% a year.
"In 1985, it was the businessperson's tool," said Leah Senitte, 911 program manager for the state of California. "Now it's everyone's safety blanket."
In Los Angeles, 25 to 45 operators, depending on the time, handle an average of 1,800 cellular calls daily. The same operators also are expected to take about 1,300 calls from roadside call boxes and another 1,000 from other phones.
"As we get more and more calls, it's going to become a bigger and bigger problem. It's becoming harder and harder for us to get the number of people we need to answer these calls," said Pedersen, who now presses staff to work an average of 1,700 overtime hours a month, contrasted with 200 five years ago.
