Humboldt County Link Puts Entire State a Phone Call Away From Emergency Aid

After 16 years and $209 million, telephone technicians in Humboldt County flipped a switch earlier this week and completed the final link in a statewide emergency phone system that allows phone users to summon help simply by dialing 911.

Completion of the Humboldt County system Monday makes California the nation’s second state to fully implement a statewide emergency phone network. Now, anybody anywhere in the state can dial the 911 number and, presumably, receive immediate help.

Gov. George Deukmejian, speaking at a Sacramento luncheon Thursday to commemorate the occasion, praised the system as “a giant leap forward for the people of this state.”

‘Phone Call Away’

“Today, I must tell you that there is a great deal of satisfaction in knowing that, for all residents in all regions of our state, immediate medical, law enforcement and firefighting help is just a simple phone call away,” the governor said in a statement that was carried via closed-circuit television to similar gatherings in Fresno, San Jose, Oakland, San Diego and Los Angeles.

With the 911 system, emergency police, fire and ambulance services are linked so a central dispatcher can immediately send help or electronically route the call to the right public safety agency.

Bill Brandenburg, the state’s 911 program manager, estimates that 50,000 to 65,000 calls per day are coming into 911 systems installed in the state’s 58 counties and 437 cities. Pacific Bell officials said that makes California’s the “largest and most complex system in the nation.”

The emergency telephone network was launched by a 1972 state law that required the system to be operating by the end of 1982. However, political and technical problems forced the Legislature to extend the deadline twice, most recently to Dec. 31 of this year.

When the system started, the state worked with AT&T;, but 911 now involves 23 phone companies around the state.

Financed by Surcharge

The system is paid for by a surcharge of 0.5% that has been applied to all phone bills since 1977. The tax adds about eight cents a month to the average phone bill and touched off controversy early on because of the long time it would take to fully implement the system. The tax will continue in effect permanently to pay the estimated $52-million annual tab for maintaining the system.

All 50 states have at least some portion of a 911 emergency system in service, according to Pacific Bell officials. Connecticut was the first to complete its statewide network.

The Los Angeles system, which began operating last year after a troubled start, is by far the largest in the California network, serving more than 3 million people and handling an average of 3,500 to 4,000 calls daily, 21% of which are classified as life threatening.

Both the Los Angeles City and County systems are among those equipped with more advanced equipment that allows emergency calls to be routed automatically to the closest police, fire or ambulance units via computer terminals installed in their vehicles. That system automatically displays the caller’s address so that emergency crews can respond even if the caller is unable to speak.

An estimated 38 counties, mainly in rural areas, still do not have that advanced equipment. The state hopes eventually to install it throughout the system. But officials fear that would cost more than is currently raised by the 911 telephone surtax.