An explosion in calls from cellular phones has overwhelmed critical parts of California's 911 system, resulting in hundreds of thousands of lost calls and lengthy waits to reach dispatchers even as crimes or potentially deadly emergencies unfold.
Wireless 911 calls statewide have jumped roughly tenfold since 1990, to more than 8 million last year. Cell calls now make up the majority of all 911 calls, and key emergency agencies are struggling to adapt.
The problems are aggravated by call surges -- such as when multiple motorists call in about the same accident -- staffing shortages at 911 dispatch centers, and technological hurdles. Cell calls are more easily interrupted or lost and take longer to handle, officials say, reducing the number of calls each dispatcher can field.
Many people are unaware of such deficiencies until they desperately need help.
Elementary school counselor Brad Edwards said he waited eight harrowing minutes last year before a dispatcher picked up his cell call about a boy who had collapsed on a Los Angeles schoolyard and begun foaming from the mouth.
"The fire station is just a few blocks away. I could have run there faster than it took them to help me," said Edwards, adding that the boy survived.
"I had no idea there were these kind of problems," he said.
Some officials say that, in general, a person is better off calling for help on a land line. But because the same dispatchers answer both types of calls, delays can spread across the system, affecting land line callers as well.
The difficulty in pinpointing the location of cellphone callers has long been recognized. A Times review, however, found that the system often bogs or breaks down even before a call reaches a dispatcher. The newspaper reviewed data on state and local 911 calls and CHP complaint logs, and interviewed public safety officials and callers.
Hardest hit are callers routed to the California Highway Patrol, which for years received all wireless emergency calls and still handles nearly three-quarters of them.
Taking the brunt
The state says 90% of 911 calls should be answered in less than 10 seconds, a standard embraced by dispatch centers across the country. But at the CHP's two largest call centers, in Los Angeles and San Francisco, waits average more than five times that, according to data covering the first seven months of this year. The great majority of the calls came from cellphones.
