Corbin eyeing 911 upgrade for cell phones

In an effort to keep up with the times, Corbin Police Chief Carson Mullins said he’d like to upgrade the city’s 911 emergency dispatch center so that it can handle cell phone calls.
Mullins floated the suggestion in the wake of a recent study by the Corbin City Commission into the origins of Corbin’s 911 system and how it has progressed to today.
“I think it’s something we definitely want to do,” Mullins said. “We can do everything right now, except for that. That would be an added public safety feature that our dispatch center definitely needs.”
Currently, all cell phone calls to 911 made within the city are handled by a county dispatch center in Knox, Laurel or Whitley Counties. The problem with that, Corbin City Commissioner Phil Gregory said, is that many times, dispatchers at the county dispatch centers aren’t familiar with city streets, meaning there could be a delay in the arrival of ambulances, police or firefighters at an emergency situation.
“When it comes to that kind of stuff, mere seconds can be the difference between life and death,” Gregory said. “You can dial 911 on your cell phone, and you may get someone in Barbourville or Williamsburg and you may not realize it. You can tell them you are on Kentucky Street or whatever, and they have to pass that information on to Corbin dispatch. Well, that takes time. If we had this, they would automatically get it here in Corbin.”
Gregory headed up a recent study of Corbin’s 911 system and its origins in order to help commissioners better understand its situation today. Though the city pays salaries for dispatchers, equipment and repair costs is normally footed by the Whitley County Fiscal Court. The arrangement dates back to an agreement signed in 1984 when Corbin’s 911 system came into being.
Mullins said when the option to add cell phones to the system came up, leaders agreed to allow county dispatch centers to handle wireless calls because the technology was costly and cell phones weren’t as prolific as they are today.
“Now, it’s kind of imperative,” he said. “Those decisions were made, basically, before everyone had cell phones. Now, you’ve got a lot of people using them instead of regular land lines in their home. Our city needs to have that capability.”
Mullins said he suspects commissioners would be supportive of the idea, even though there is some cost involved. He added that to accept cell calls, new equipment would have to be ordered and cell phone companies would have to work with the city to ensure wireless calls made there go to the right dispatch center.
Gregory said he plans to bring up the idea for formal consideration in the near future.