By Don Wilkins
The Messenger-Inquirer
OWENSBORO, Ky. — Paul Nave, director of the 911 center, wants to ensure that when someone dials 911, it goes straight to a dispatcher.
According to Nave, 911 calls made from large businesses and other organizations that have multiple line telephone systems have flaws that prevent immediate connection with a dispatcher.
Nave is part of a committee working on legislation for the upcoming Kentucky General Assembly that will address problems he and other 911 officials see with MLTS.
Nave said Texas is the only state that he’s aware of that has passed a MLTS bill.
“If you have the MLTS bill, the 911 call has to come to the 911 center,” Nave said. “It can’t go to a guard shack. It’s not that we think a guard is 100 percent incapable of handling an emergency. Some of them could be EMT-trained. But they don’t have the means to dispatch police, fire and ambulance to the scene. So there’s this huge delay with that aspect.”
A reason, Nave said, that some companies don’t have 911 calls go directly to dispatch is that some states or cities will charge a fee for emergency personnel to respond regardless of whether it’s a false alarm or not.
“To me, a life is more important than not getting billed,” Nave said.
The law will also mandate that more than just the address comes up on the computer screen when the 911 call is received.
Paul said a MLTS should provide a precise location of where the call was made in the building.
“We’ve had 911 calls from a factory, and they’ll say, ‘Well, we don’t know where (the call) is coming from,’” Nave said. “But then there could be somebody in the back having a heart attack.”
Currently, federal legislation has been proposed for “direct access to 911.”
According to Nave, the state’s version of the MLTS bill will mirror the federal bill by seeking the elimination of “dialing 9" prior to allowing the 911 call to be made.
Nave said people in distress shouldn’t have to enter an extra digit to get help.
“Why the federal bill came about is because there was a girl in a motel room trying to call 911 because her mother was being beat up,” said Nave, adding that the mother was killed. “The 911 call wasn’t going out because she wasn’t dialing 9-911.”
Nave said the legislation wouldn’t be necessary if businesses and organizations that have MLTS would make the changes on their own.
“We’re not trying to put a burden on the community or on these companies,” Nave said. “Most are capable of doing it now. We just need a catalyst to help them get it done.”
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