REAL LIFE 911 VALUABLE TO COMMUNITY

It was an average night at the Cape Girardeau County Sheriff's department for Cheryl Welch, the 911 dispatcher on duty. All of a sudden her red light brightened, and she knew a call was coming through. Before she finished answering "Cape County 911, what's your emergency?" she had the caller's address on her computer screen.

On the other end of the telephone line was a little girl violently screaming that her father was trying to kill her mother. The phone clicked before Welch could find out much more information. But she had the address, so she immediately sent police officers to the scene.

"It was very frightening," said Welch. "Under the old system, without 911, we never would have been able to find out where the girl was calling from, and we never would have been able to help them."

But the police got to the scene in time and saved the little girl and her mother from a violent situation.

Although Welch tries to follow through on most of her calls, she was unable to reach the little girl that had called 911.

"I wish I was able to tell her what a good thing she did by calling 911," Welch said.

Most 911 calls aren't so eventful or heart-stopping. In fact, the majority of calls that come through 911 are actually children playing or people trying to program their phones.

Parents should explain to their children the seriousness of calling an emergency service, dipatchers say. In addition, every time someone programs 911 into a phone, the call goes through, even if the caller hangs up. Dispatchers recommend that the caller stay on the line just to tell them there was no emergency, otherwise they might end up with an officer at their front door.

The 911 service went into effect last November for Cape Girardeau County. The cities of Jackson and Cape Girardeau have their own 911 systems that went on line shortly before the county's system. All calls outside of the city limits come through the sheriff's office.

This caused some problems when the system first went into operation. There was trouble establishing exactly which businesses and residences were outside the city limits. Through a cooperative effort, the cities and the sheriff's department have worked out that problem.

"There were some minor problems at first, but they've been worked out and now we have a very effective, valuable system," said Lt. Randy Roddy of the Cape Girardeau Police Department.

Another problem remains. Rural areas that have party lines can't be identified on a 911 call. The telephone company is working to eliminate party lines, so eventually that problem will be worked out as well.

In spite of some of the bugs that had to be worked out, the 911 system has been a tremendous help for emergency situations in the area.

The biggest benefit of the system is that when the call comes in, the dispatcher immediately knows the address where the call is made. So instead having to ask the distressed caller a series of questions, the dispatcher just asks if the information is correct.

"When people are upset, they get things wrong, and we really lose valuable time," said Ruth Ann Dickerson, chief deputy of the Cape County Sheriff's Department. "With 911 we save an incredible amount of time gathering information."

Another time-saving part of the 911 service is the computer printer at all rural fire stations. When a call comes through, the dispatcher can send the information from the computer to the printer at the station. The firefighters can then rip the sheet and run with it.

The county usually keeps at least one dispatcher on duty at all times, sometimes two. Some days there can be as many as 20 calls. On others there might just be a couple.

"You certainly never know what to expect when you come in," said Welch.

The city of Cape Girardeau usually stays busier. Its dispatchers average 38 calls to 911 a day.

Most of the emergencies that come through 911 are medical situations and vehicle accidents. But occasionally there are some calls that require calmness on the part of the dispatcher.

"The domestic disturbances cause the most tension," Welch said. "You feel the fear in their voices, and it's important to stay on the line with them. The bad part is when the officer comes and you have to hang up, you feel really helpless then."

When 911 first came to Cape Girardau County, there were residents who were upset about the need to change thier addresses for 911 identification and an accompanying tax increase.

Nov. 1 is the deadline for county residents to change their rural routes and box numbers to the city street number style adopted under the 911 emergency program.