Dispatchers put out call for cell phone numbers

Emergency dispatchers spend their time fielding calls from panicked residents, so it was a role reversal when the Summit, Martin and Trabing fires burned through Santa Cruz County in quick succession in May and June. Santa Cruz County dispatchers found themselves calling residents to tell them to jump in their cars and get out before the flames reached them.

County dispatchers dialed 7,000 to 8,000 telephone numbers during the three fires, calling people at home to issue mandatory evacuation notices, according to Dennis Kidd, support services manager for the Santa Cruz Consolidated Emergency Communications Center.

The only problem is the center doesn’t have a database of cell phone numbers.

“We have no way to do that with cell phones,” Kidd explained. “That’s why we’re asking the community to self-register their cell phones.”

Self-registration is quick, free and allows the dispatch center to have access to a resident’s cell phone number in an emergency.

The dispatch center is a hub of emergency communications that provides public safety and 911 dispatch services for Santa Cruz County and the cities of Capitola, Santa Cruz and Watsonville. AT&T supplies landline telephone numbers to the center. That means dispatchers can contact residents on their home phones if officials want to request community assistance in locating missing children, need to issue be-on-the-lookout notices for dangerous criminals in a neighborhood or — as in the case of the recent forest fires — need to issue evacuation notices.

The only hitch in this system is that cell phone companies don’t supply telephone numbers, so if a resident isn’t home, there’s no way for dispatchers to contact that person.

Now, the center wants residents to self-register their cell phone numbers so this process can take place outside of the home.

“I’ve gotten a lot of community people already calling me wanting to do this,” Kidd said.

“With the recent fires, we’ve really stepped up our ability to do this.”

On Thursday, Kidd announced the launch of the self-registration site.

The 911 center contracts with Avtex, using the company’s CityWatch emergency notification computer platform. Cell phone users can’t be notified via this system unless they register.

“As people register their cell phones, we’ll incorporate their numbers in the system as well,” Kidd said.

“It’s completely up to individuals to do this or not; for whatever reason, cell phone companies don’t provide us their databases like landline companies do,” he said.

The center recognized the need to expand its database, given communication trends.

“The growing trend is people seem to be moving away from a landline phone in their house and using a cell phone,” Kidd said.

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It takes only a few seconds to self-register your cell phone number with the Santa Cruz County Consolidated Emergency Communications Center. All a person needs to do is go to the center’s Web site, www.sccecc.org, click on the main link and follow a few quick instructions. Information needed is the person’s address, cell phone number and cell phone service provider.

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(Published in 7/11/08 edition)

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