BILL ANALYSIS Ó
AB 1564
Page 1
Date of Hearing: May 4, 2016
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
Lorena Gonzalez, Chair
AB
1564 (Williams) - As Amended March 17, 2016
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|Policy |Utilities and Commerce |Vote:|15 - 0 |
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| |Governmental Organization | |21 - 0 |
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Urgency: No State Mandated Local Program: NoReimbursable: No
SUMMARY:
This bill requires the Office of Emergency Services (OES), the
California Highway Patrol (CHP), and county coordinators to
review the states routing of 911 calls. Specifically, this
bill:
1)Requires OES to take all necessary actions to maximize the
efficiency of the 911 system.
AB 1564
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2)Requires OES to require its Public Safety Communications
Division to work with the CHP and county coordinators to
conduct an annual comprehensive statewide review and routing
decision making process to determine the most efficient
routing for wireless 911 calls.
3)Authorizes a local fire, police, sheriff, or emergency medical
services agency, or a Public Safety Answering Point (PSAP), to
submit a written request for a review of a specific cell
sector, as specified.
4)Requires OES to require its Public Safety Communications
Division to work with wireless carriers to verify that all
cell sector routing decisions, as specified, have been
implemented.
FISCAL EFFECT:
Absorbable state costs.
COMMENTS:
1)Purpose. According to the author, there are currently
significant problems with California's 911 system including
the misrouting of calls to incorrect PSAPs, sometimes in
different cities or regions, and inaccurate caller location
information.
The author points to an incident in 2014 when a 911 emergency
call made in Santa Barbara was routed to Ventura CHP instead.
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Inaccurate location information given from CHP to the local
dispatch further delayed the call and the arrival of medical
care. Following the 2014 shooting in Isla Vista, CA, in
August 2015 test calls made from Isla Vista revealed that cell
sites were still routing calls to Ventura CHP instead of a
local dispatch.
2)Background. When the Warren-911 Act was enacted in 1973 ,
911 emergency calls were made primarily on landlines. A call
would be routed to a PSAP and the dispatcher would dispatch
emergency services to the location accordingly. As mobile
phones were introduced, mobile 911 calls were routed to a CHP
dispatch because most early mobile phones were in cars and the
assumption was that calls being made from a mobile device were
primarily to report issues on roadways. As mobile devices
became more common and the use of landlines decreased, more
911 calls were being made from mobile devices than landlines.
By 2015, 25 million 911 calls were being made each year and
80% of those calls were coming from mobile devices. Currently,
California has approximately 425 PSAPs, which handle 51% of
the states 911 calls, while 25 CHP PSAPs handle the remaining
49%.
When a 911 call is made from a mobile device, the call is
routed to an antenna on a cell tower. Each antenna is
assigned an Emergency Service Number which determines the PSAP
that will handle the call. Calls made from one antenna's
coverage area might directly be referred to a local PSAP,
whereas, another may be referred to a CHP dispatch depending
on the antenna.
911 callers using a mobile device that are forwarded to a CHP
PSAP are queried until their location is determined by the
CHP. The call is then transferred to a local dispatch center.
This has resulted in delays of the arrival of emergency
services.
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After completion of the comprehensive statewide review and
routing decision making process, this bill authorizes a local
fire, police, sheriff, or emergency medical service agency, or
a local PSAP, to submit a written request to the Public Safety
Communication Division, for a review of a specified cell
sector. This will allow local public safety officials to
continually help identify misrouted calls for OES to ensure
calls are routed quickly and accurately to provide more
effective emergency services to the public
Analysis Prepared by:Jennifer Galehouse / APPR. / (916)
319-2081