Diversion of 911 Funds Criticized

Emergency agencies say Gov. Gray Davis and the state Legislature have jeopardized vital improvements to California’s 911 call system, including the ability to track emergency calls from mobile phones, by shifting 70% of the program’s reserve funds in their scramble to balance the state budget.

The move has set off a wave of anger and alarm among 911-related groups, which have spent years gearing up for a federally mandated upgrade that would allow emergency crews to locate 911 callers on cellular phones.

California’s current system provides phone number and location information for 911 calls from traditional phones, but not for mobile phones. The situation forces 911 operators to quiz wireless callers about their location and may leave emergency personnel unable to find the victim.

In 1996, the Federal Communications Commission laid the groundwork for a nationwide system to help police and other safety officials find the locations of cellular phone users. The plan requires wireless phone companies to provide location data to 911 centers beginning Oct. 1. The new tracking system pinpoints 911 callers’ position by using signals from global positioning satellites and receivers built into phones or by using complex algorithms from signals between handsets and cellular transmission towers.

The state upgrade, expected to cost at least $115 million over three years, includes new hardware and software for the state’s 500 emergency call answering centers so they can process and map location data from wireless phone networks.

The state budget leaves funds in place for this year’s phase of the project, which includes upgrading 911 systems in Los Angeles County. But program officials say that with $50 million removed from the account, it is uncertain that improvements for San Francisco and the next project phases will go through. The idea is to first upgrade call centers in the largest cities and have the entire state covered by 2004.

State officials defend the move by arguing that the fund remains financially sound, with surcharge income this year estimated to total $116 million--enough to fund operations for the first year of 911 network upgrades. They believe that steady increases in the surcharge income will be enough to continue funding operations along with the upgrades planned for the next two years.

Although many wireless companies are pressing for an extension of the October deadline, California will face a much bigger problem if the state doesn’t fund its part of the wireless upgrade. Without adequate funds, the FCC’s deadlines become moot, because the state’s call centers won’t have the equipment to route and process the location data, safety officials say.

“We’re outraged,” said Rex Martin, president of the California chapter of the National Emergency Number Assn. and director of operations for the San Francisco emergency communications department. “To have this reserve fund gutted by even $50 million could affect plans for the second and third year out because there’s no guarantee that the money’s going to be there.”

The majority of states have the same problem, but others have at least funded the first step, giving 911 operators the mobile caller’s phone number and the ability to get general location information if needed.

With more than 110 million mobile phones in use nationwide, the percentage of 911 calls from wireless phones ballooned 30% last year, or about 45 million calls nationally, a tenfold increase in 10 years.

Phone companies are angry too because their customers have been paying a special surcharge on monthly bills specifically to fund California 911 operations and improvements. That fee, equal to 0.72% of every customer’s monthly in-state calling charges, has been on California phone bills for almost 25 years, with the funds routed to the state’s Emergency Telephone Number Account.

“We already have several surcharges on customers’ phone bills, and if we’re going to have this 911 charge, then at least it should go for the purpose stated on the bill,” said Michael Bagley, director of public policy at Verizon Wireless, the nation’s largest wireless carrier.

But the state is allowed to take money from the 911 fund--and many other specialty accounts--and use it for other purposes, according to the state statute that created the fund.

In fact, this year’s money transfer isn’t the first time state lawmakers have shifted money from the 911 fund. During the most recent recession, the state took nearly $45 million from the 911 fund over three years in the early 1990s, according to budget records.

In this case, though, the amount withdrawn is much larger than in previous years, and it comes just as the entire state gears up for its most expensive and ambitious 911 system upgrade ever.

“This is just a pure theft of the account and puts public safety at risk,” said state Sen. Jim Brulte (R-Rancho Cucamonga), who said he tried unsuccessfully to derail the fund raid. “The net effect is that the 911 system, which already is overloaded and in drastic need of technological upgrade, will become more overloaded and technologically obsolete.”

Groups throughout the state have expressed their alarm in letters to lawmakers and Davis, including the California Ambulance Assn., the American Heart Assn., the California Fire Chiefs Assn. and San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown.

“The current system is a real threat to public safety . . . and the risk of unnecessary loss of life and property is very real,” David Nevins, president of the California Ambulance Assn., said in his letter.

The state’s assumption that it can continue paying for the improvements assumes the program will need only the currently budgeted amount of about $115 million. Many other states have agreed to help the wireless companies fund their part of the upgrade--an expensive task expected to cost the phone industry $2 billion to $4 billion.

Verizon said it and other companies plan to seek some form of subsidy from California, possibly from the 911 fund.