Smart 911 Helps First Responders Track Emergency Cell Phone Calls

How many of you don’t have a landline anymore and rely on your cell as your sole home phone?

Emergency responders in DuPage County would wag a finger at you if they could see you.

That’s because most cell phones aren’t identified with a home address. If you fall in your house, call 911 from your cell phone and lose consciousness before you can say anything to the operator, they don’t know where to find you.

But with the help of a new free service, that could change.

Earlier this month, DuPage Public Safety Communications (DU-COMM) announced its participation in a new program that allows residents to pre-register information pertinent to emergency dispatchers.

The information will be available on a nationwide network and is automatically available when an emergency call is made from residents' home or cell phones.

DuPage County is the first in the State of Illinois to offer the Smart911 service.

“Smart911 strengthens and expands our current 9-1-1 service by providing us with critical information about callers, while enhancing our ability to locate and communicate with them,” Brian Tegtmeyer, Executive Director of DU-COMM, said in a statement.

“Everyone is used to 9-1-1 knowing where they are calling from, but we do not get as much information on a wireless call as we do when someone calls from a landline phone in their home. Many people are also opting to eliminate their landline phones, and Smart911 will provide our 9-1-1 Telecommunicators with the information they need to better serve our citizens and it can help save lives. This is our first step towards the next generation of 9-1-1 services in DuPage County”.

Information will be available to any participating emergency dispatcher in the country. The registration process takes roughly 10 minutes to complete with information at hand.

How to create a Smart911 profile:

• Access the Smart911 website
• Click the 'Register Now' button
• Enter your personal information (email address, home address, location of gas and electric valves, drivers license, additional details of preexisting conditions or other medical needs)
• Opt to add photos of household members