Politics & Government
NH 911: Important Information About Locating You In An Emergency
Enhanced 911 can make the difference between life and death — but they need to be able to find your location. What you can do to help them.
CONCORD, — NH Enhanced 911 wants to help educate citizens on the abilities that dispatchers have to "Ping" cell phones to assist in situations.
The question asked often of dispatchers is “Can’t you just ping my phone?”
Movies and TV would have you believe that 9-1-1 is magic and always knows the exact location of cell phone callers. In reality, a 9-1-1 center is not a magic unicorn and is nothing like the movies.
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In real life, sometimes 9-1-1 can determine your location and sometimes they can’t. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has established regulations regarding cell phones and tracking. Sometimes a cell phone will provide the tower location it is connected to (called a “Phase 1” connection), which only gives a handset location within a several thousand foot radius — marginally helpful in an emergency.
Even with a “Phase 2” connection (latitude and longitude coordinates), the FCC standard imposed on cell carriers is “within 50 to 300 meters;” 300 meters (almost 1,000 feet) is a lot of ground to search. An area of 1000 feet could include an entire apartment complex or the surrounding streets. Think about your community — apartment complexes, business districts and even rural areas pose a problem if the best location is within 1,000 feet.
Find out what's happening in Concordfor free with the latest updates from Patch.
Often 9-1-1 callers unsure of their exact location will say, “can’t you just ping my phone?” Yes, law enforcement agencies can request a "ping" on a phone in potentially life threatening emergencies.
Most cellular carriers will only provide "ping" information when 9-1-1 can give a specific reason they believe the caller is in danger. In practice, many carriers require an official, faxed written request to "ping" a phone.
The results of the "ping" from the carriers may take several minutes and up to an hour or more. In an emergency, this delay could mean life or death.
What can you do? When a cellular 9-1-1 call is the only option, please KNOW YOUR LOCATION. Provide the town/city name, street address (including house number), highway/route number (including direction of travel) or nearby cross streets and/or landmarks.
Also if you have a prepaid cell phone, NH Enhanced 911 offers this information
Follow NH Enhanced 911 on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/e911newhampshire
