DeKalb: All addresses restored to 911 system

By Megan Matteucci

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

DeKalb County’s 911 system now includes all addresses in the county, officials told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution on Monday.

An outside company is double-checking the county’s Computer-Aided Dispatch system, but officials anticipate all upgrades are complete.

“We certainly hope this helps and there are no more problems,” public safety director William “Wiz” Miller told the AJC.

A county analysis found 53 addresses were omitted from the system during an April software upgrade. They have since been restored, Miller said Monday.

Despite problems with the April software upgrade, the first omission was not discovered until May 21 when Travis Hite waited 34 minutes for an ambulance to respond. He had gone into anaphylactic shock from an allergic reaction to pine nuts.

A 911 recording indicates Hite’s fiancée gave dispatchers the exact street address, closest intersections and name of the apartment complex, but dispatchers sent the ambulance to the wrong address.

They later learned the couple’s Briarwood Road address was not listed in the system.

Following the incident, the county and its software provider, InterAct Public Safety, began checking 26,368 separate street blocks and 9,700 streets to ensure they were all in the system, Miller said.

The county is still working with InterAct, but Miller said GIS Data Resources of California is doing another analysis of the system to make sure there are no more problems.

“There is no cost unless the company finds a complex problem that we need them to fix,” Miller said.

The county commission is also looking into hiring a separate auditor to look at the entire 911 system after several other complaints of delayed response times.

The county terminated its contract with Care Ambulance effective July 5, saying crews failed to follow policy and had delayed response times. Care, which requested the audit, has said they are only aware of one complaint: an injured teenage soccer player who waited 22 minutes for an ambulance. Care was not involved with Hite’s call.

American Medical Response is scheduled to begin providing ambulance services July 6. Its temporary contract will run until Jan. 11.