Prank calls may bring 911 rule change

WASHINGTON – Discarded cell phones still must be able to call 9-1-1 even if the owner is no longer paying for wireless service. The federal government wants to end that nearly 20-year-old rule as part of a proposal that’s stirring debate across the country, including in Florida.

The Federal Communications Commission says 9-1-1 capability on otherwise unusable phones is no longer necessary given the proliferation of low-cost wireless plans. It also contends problems the rule has created for emergency call centers appear to outweigh the benefits.

“The record suggests that fraudulent calls to 9-1-1 from (such) devices constitute a large and continuing drain on public safety resources and that the problem is not abating,” the agency wrote in May when announcing the proposed change.

Prank calls have been a problem in Florida, especially in heavily populated areas where it’s difficult to precisely identify who’s making the call or where it originates.

Lee County in Southwest Florida receives two to six fraudulent calls per day on cell phones with no wireless service and it takes up to four hours on average to identify the caller. Most of those prank calls originate from the same phones and occur repeatedly as a harassment either to law enforcement or to an unidentified subject known to the caller, county officials wrote to the FCC.

Even so, the perpetrator is seldom caught because technology can help identify the general neighborhood where someone is calling from but often not the address, said Rob Farmer, director of the Lee County Department of Public Safety.

One caller in southwest Lee County has kept emergency responders busy over the past five months, calling 9-1-1 late at night and immediately hanging up, he said. It’s resulted in frequent late-night knocks by sheriff’s deputies on neighbor’s doors looking for any signs of an emergency but no arrest. Farmer said it’s not just a drain on resources but a challenge to keep responders sharp in the event of a real crisis.

“What I fear on the street as a manager is (responders) getting complacent,” Farmer said.

The requirement was created in 1996 over objections from wireless carriers.

The aim was to allow emergency calls even if a wireless service account had been suspended because of failure to pay, or if a cell phone was kept as a spare in case of emergency.

“I personally keep an old cell phone in my car for emergencies always charged and ready, should my primary phone go dead or I accidentally leave it at home,” John Hawk, a Panama City resident recently wrote to the FCC, asking the agency to keep the rule. “While I grant you abuse might occur, it is clear that some senior citizens were hit hard by the economic damage of the last five to seven years and use this service.”

A coalition of nine public safety organizations asked the federal government in 2008 to examine the issue. Florida was among states that provided feedback.

Albert Erdmann of Cocoa opposes the FCC’s proposed change and thinks an easy fix would be to block only those phones traced to multiple false calls.

“Someone will die if they cannot get thru,” he wrote on the agency’s online comment page. “The ability to reach 9-1-1 is more important than the problems (of fraudulent calls). I guess if this is adopted, I should give up on cell phones in emergencies, and rely on Ham Radio instead.”

Farmer said the phones have been useful for groups that may not have access to a wireless phone in an emergency such as victims of domestic battery. He’d like to see telecommunications companies do more to provide specific locations for fraudulent calls and data on the owner of the phone.

The National Association of State 9-1-1 Administrators, whose members are divided over whether the rule should be changed, offered multiple examples of problems the rule is causing:

• A call center in Grand Rapids, Michigan, received 1,162 calls from such phones in April, of which only a small percentage were legitimate.

• A mentally handicapped caller placed more than 20,895 calls to a call center in Iowa in 2014. It took nearly a year to identify the caller.

• The Oahu, Hawaii, Police Department reported receiving 200 to 300 calls daily over a nine-month period from an individual using such a phone who would whisper or leave the line open.

Wireless companies, which initially opposed the requirement, now oppose ending it.

People expect 9-1-1 to “just work” from any phone, CTIA-The Wireless Association told the FCC. The trade group said those who rely on wireless devices without regular service include lower-income populations, the elderly and people with disabilities.

In addition, the change would cost companies time and money.

“Carriers would have to take significant steps to modify their networks — again,” CTIA officials wrote.

Telford Forgety, director of government affairs for the National Emergency Number Association, said the group understands the rational desire of wireless carriers to avoid having to change their networks. But, Forgety wrote to the FCC in July that “costs to the public of maintaining the status quo — both in dollar terms and in safety and security terms — are clearly greater.”

The FCC has no set deadline to make a decision.


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