White Co. board looks into 911 mapping

WHITE COUNTY, Ind. (WISH) - In a time when more mobile phones are being used for 911 calls, White County is considering a new mapping system for their emergency dispatch system to ensure a more accurate response.

The county commissioners and council met Monday to discuss the issue. 911 director, Terri Brooks, said there are some problems with the current 911 system.

She said the problems usually pop up when callers use a moblie device and do not know where they are. The current mapping sometimes displays the wrong location for callers using a cell phone.

Brooks recommended using a mapping system from Indianapolis-based WTH technology. WTH is currently used in other counties in the state.

Brooks says WTH mapping has more up-to-date and accurate address information. Brooks will also have the ability to make corrections to the map so it will be correct.

The new system will also have improved capability for mutual aid response, as well, making it easier for dispatchers to call out multiple fire departments. Currently, they can only add one fire and one police department designated for a given area in the county.

"When there's a house fire, sometimes they want not just that fire department's area, they want four other departments paged out," Brooks said. "It will still be up to the respective fire departments to know what apparatuses to send out, but at least we can work on getting a procedure in place for mutual aid paging."

WTH has begun the switch-over process. Brooks says installation and training will be fairly simple.

"This will be a huge help to the dispatchers, and it's a help for the people," Brooks said.