Sonoma gets ‘wireless 911’ service

Sonoma cellphone users dialing for help will no longer have to go through the California Highway Patrol, following a recent change to the way local emergency calls are handled.
“The concept is that calls locally routed will go to local resources,” sheriff’s dispatch manager Steve Bell said Thursday. “Wireless 911 does not know jurisdiction.”
The change, based on agreements between the CHP, Sonoma County Sheriff’s Department and various cellphone providers and announced Thursday, has been a year in the crafting and also affects cellular sites within the city of Windsor. Both towns contract their police and dispatch services though the sheriff’s department.
Each cellular site is composed of three “sectors,” one of which is dedicated to handling cellular 911 calls. Bell said that, by default, emergency calls are routed through the nearest CHP dispatch center; in Sonoma’s case, that’s Vallejo.
But the new agreement means most in-city cellular 911 calls will go straight to the central dispatch center in Santa Rosa. Cellular calls originating from the Valley’s unincorporated areas will still be routed through Vallejo.
Sonoma police Sgt. Dave Johnston said the change will effectively “cut out the middleman and improve response time” – as well as making it easier for responders to locate callers when the connection is lost. Unlike a “landline,” or standard telephone, a cellular 911 call doesn’t automatically provide the caller’s location, but Johnston said the new system makes it easier to triangulate on both stationary and moving callers.