Full Notification

** NEWS RELEASE **
June 17, 2009

Santa Fe County Regional Emergency Communications Center investigating 911 routing problem.

Sheriff Greg Solano announces the Santa Fe County Emergency Communications Center is investigating issues that occurred with the lost hiker Megumi Yamamoto . There is a perception out there that she was unable to obtain help which is untrue. Ms. Yamamoto called 911 and her call was routed to the 911 emergency dispatch center in Santa Fe County. Each Cell phone tower throughout the state is programmed to send a 911 call to the nearest 911 center dependent upon where you are calling from. The Santa Fe 911 Center is programmed to attempt to triangulate a person’s location by using different cell phone towers in the area. When a call is made from a land line the 911 center can actually get the exact address and a map of the area on the dispatchers screen.

When a person is calling from a cell phone we usually but not always can triangulate a position within a 1-2 square mile radius. This helps to narrow down a person’s location but still requires a search of 1-2 square miles. When Ms. Yamamoto called our dispatch center we received the call on a non emergency phone line. The non emergency phone lines are not equipped to triangulate position. The dispatcher had her hang up and call back several times requesting that she dial 911 thinking that she had dialed the non emergency number. This was due to Ms. Yamamoto not having a good idea of just where she was. The dispatchers were trying desperately to get a triangulation by having the call come in on a 911 line.

When it became apparent that for some reason still being investigated her call continued to be received on the non emergency line and not the 911 triangulation equipped line the decision was made to transfer the call to the New Mexico State Police and begin the search and rescue without the triangulation information. At no time was Ms. Yamamoto not in constant contact with our dispatch center and while dispatchers did have her hang up and redial 911 several times it was only to try and obtain the best information to begin a search.

To our knowledge this type of triangulation problem has not happened since the technology to triangulate cell phones was added to the dispatch center a little over a year ago. The technology is new and still being developed. The Santa Fe Regional Emergency Communications Center is a multi jurisdiction center run by a board of directors of which Sheriff Solano is a board member. The Chairman of the board has authorized Sheriff Solano to speak to the media on behalf of the board in this case. A full investigation of the cause of this situation is being conducted on a state wide level. The results of the investigation will be released to the media when it is completed. Due to the highly technical nature of the system and the fact that it involves the State of New Mexico, the Santa Fe Regional Communications Center and every cell phone carrier and cell tower in New Mexico we anticipate the investigation to take some time however we are putting all our efforts into an expeditious investigation.