ST. LOUIS-Southwestern Bell Wireless began a program in St. Louis that enables cellular 911 calls to be automatically routed to the area’s largest police and sheriff’s departments based on the cellular tower’s location.
When wireless 911 was introduced to the region in 1994, the St. Louis County Police department asked that all cellular 911 calls be directed to their dispatchers because they had the technological expertise to immediately route the calls to the appropriate police and fire departments in central and eastern Missouri.
Now calls will be directed to St. Louis City Police, St. Louis County Police or the sheriff’s departments in St. Charles, Jefferson and Franklin counties. Cellular 911 calls placed in Illinois already are directed to Madison, Monroe, St. Clair and Clinton county sheriff’s departments.
Southwestern Bell said St. Louis County dispatchers handled about 580 cellular 911 calls each 24 hour shift, 62 percent of which were made by Southwestern Bell Wireless customers. About 63 percent of all cellular 911 calls in the region stayed within St. Louis County, while 25 percent were transferred to St. Louis City Police and 12 percent were divided among St. Charles, Jefferson and Franklin counties and other law enforcement agencies.
