@ Mellow: Thanks, but I do what I do because I can really help others, because I can make a difference! (note: some of the callers may disagree with this, but I don't have the roast time for turkeys nor the weather forecast for New Mexico memorized! - my bad?)
@ Bakerboy: Yes, but it is not GPS information:
Many moons ago, the powers that be decided that giving the Police the power to locate a cell phone would be too much like Big Brother is Watching. The one point that they did concede was that a cell that was used to dial 911 obviously indicated an owner in distress, so this is the ONLY time when the PD are given the coordinates of the cell phone. There are two levels to this, the first being the address of the cell phone tower, which comes across as an address followed by a compass direction for the antenna (N, NE, E, SE, S, etc) and does not give distance. Sometimes, due to weak signals or whatever, this is all the information we get.
The second level is more precise, and gives the triangulation between cell phone towers, so it can display a circle on the map. This can narrow down to a circle that covers a corner of a single house, or it can be several miles in diameter. It is useful in that it helps to identify the actual location of the caller, but it is very unpredictable in size. In addition, the information provided is the initial position of the cell when it first initiated the call - if the caller is mobile, it does not update with the new positions! The technology deployed in GPS activated cell phones hasn't crossed over into the 911 realm, at least not in this neck of the woods.
Due to the vagaries involved with this technology, or rather the inept way in which it has been implemented, we can't trust the information, so once again it comes down to "location, location, location???". If you can't tell us where you are, we are blind. The only thing I know for sure is which cell tower you were using and your rough direction from there, and even then I don't know how far you are from that tower. To add to this, 911 centers are not regional, they are local, so if you dial 911 in Tempe, you get Tempe 911, in Glendale you get Glendale 911. In the event that a 911 center is overloaded with calls, extra calls will be passed to the fallback center (another jurisdiction).
I have taken calls from 911 callers in Tucson that were rerouted to the backup (Phoenix) but their cell tower address is outside the range for my mapping system, so I have no clue where they really are! The bottom line is, don't assume that your cell phone will help us find you, you need to KNOW where you are.
There are apps out there which allow parents to track a child's cell phone via GPS and know where they are to within 3 feet. This information is NOT available to 911 (at least not in this neck of the woods) so please don't count on it! Getting this information made available requires Government intervention, and you can imagine what the "Big Brother" lobby are going to say about that! I'm not going to go there, just saying!
On the bright side, if you have a GPS device that is capable of displaying X/Y coordinates or latitude and longitude, then most mapping systems will permit input of that information, voiced over, to arrive at a location. Just remember your reading glasses !!!
oliceST:
Hope that helps!
DaveyB