By Ralph Ellis
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
ROSWELL, Ga. — Roswell would cause new problems if the city renames streets to reduce confusion in handling 911 calls, the president of an emergency dispatching organization said.
Despite resident opposition, Roswell is talking about changing the names of about 30 streets that are the same or sound similar to other streets. Richfield Court, for example, might be renamed Richfield Way, the better to differentiate it from Ridgefield Court and Ridgefield Drive.
Scott Freitag, president of the National Academies of Emergency Dispatch, said giving streets new names is usually a bad idea.
“If it’s a street that’s been there 20 or 30 years, changing those names may introduce additional confusion to people calling 911 and 911 operators who don’t know the new name of the street and the old name,” said Freitag, communications center director for the Salt Lake City Fire Department.
Fulton County 911 director Angela Barrett said the county occasionally renamed streets before most of the county became incorporated. In 2002, for example, part of Jonesboro Road was changed to Westbridge Road and part of Bethany Road to Bethany Bend and Bethany Way.
“It has drawbacks because the residents are sometimes attached to the name,” she said. “Although we send out information, when they call in an emergency they may revert and give the old name.”
To avoid problems, the 911 center had to know both the old and new names of the street, Barrett said. She said some residents simply refused to use the new street name, even when handling official documents.
Atlanta has about 25 thoroughfares with the name “Peachtree” but dispatchers can almost always locate callers, said Marquis Smith, the city’s coordinator of a program called the Master Street Address Guide.
Smith said land lines provide exact addresses and cell phones normally give the caller’s longitude and latitude. That information shows up on a computer as the closest possible address.
But Roswell police Chief Ed Williams said the large majority of cell phone calls coming into the Roswell 911 center don’t provide the caller’s location, though the center has up-to-date equipment.
Williams said he’s trying to be proactive, but affected Roswell residents complain the change is not needed because no mix-ups have occurred in Roswell as in other jurisdictions. Residents say they’ll be forced to change their checks and notify utilities, doctors, magazines and other organizations.
The City Council is still studying whether to change street names, and council member Betty Price said she’ll fight the idea. The city would have to change street signs, but otherwise the cost would be minimal.
Fulton County experienced the most publicized problem with street names. In August 2008, a Fulton 911 dispatcher sent an ambulance to Wells Street in Atlanta rather than Wales Street in Johns Creek. A 39-year-old woman died of a blocked artery. Johns Creek decided to join forces with Sandy Springs to start their own 911 center.
Maj. James Conroy, DeKalb County 911 Center director, said he knows of no problems in DeKalb that occurred because of same or similar-sounding streets.
“If you call from a land line it’s almost always correct,” he said. “Cell phones is when you come into the issue of people not knowing where they are. ... That’s why the first question we ask is what’s the address of your emegency.”
Roswell’s City Council will talk about the street renaming idea Tuesday night. Williams said the discussion has, at the least, educated the public about the potential dangers.
“If we don’t change a single street name, we’ve let people know what the problem is,” he said.
Copyright 2010 The Atlanta Journal-Constitution