When a 911 call gets dropped, it’s expected police will still respond. Now the Bethel Police Department can do that consistently, at least for landline calls. That’s because BPD just got a new 911 system.
The new system lets dispatchers see where the call is coming from, who is calling, and what the number on the other end is.
Explaining the change, Dispatch Supervisor Natalie Hayes said, “If somebody calls and [the call] drops before we can answer it, if they call and it drops right as we’re answering it, it automatically gives us that information."
The upgrade only works for landline calls. Hayes says GCI doesn’t have the towers to show cell phone locations, though dispatchers can see the cell phone numbers.
The dispatch technology isn’t new. Bethel used to have it, but Hayes says the system quit working over a year ago. A recent grant helped replace it.
The police department receives at least 100 calls a day. So the upgrade is helpful, but it’ll only affect about a quarter of dispatch calls. Nonetheless, Hayes says the improvement is significant.
“There’s nothing worse than feeling like you answered a call and you might have heard something, and you can’t call them back because their number was blocked,” Hayes said. “So now we have that peace of mind that we can call back and see what’s going on or at least have their location.”
