Gibson County dispatchers say they get more than 15,000 911 calls every year.
Eighty-percent of those calls are from cell phones and that's become a challenge when authorities are trying to respond as quickly as possible to emergencies.
Gibson County Dispatch has received more than 10,000 calls from cell phones this year. Getting an exact location from every caller takes time, that in most cases, emergency squads can't afford to waste.
When calls come into central dispatch, operators react quickly. How you call in could effect how fast you get help.
"When cell phones come in and hit a cell phone tower, we're getting the address of that tower, so we have to try to talk through and figure out where they're at," said Gibson County Head Dispatcher Lisa Viton.
Viton says people often call to report an emergency, but can't tell dispatchers how to find them.
"We get several calls a day that don't know where they're at," she said. "It's frustrating, basically you have to keep them calm and ask them what they see, tell me what you see, is there a sign somewhere, is there a highway marker."
Princeton resident Phillip Lang worries that in an emergency, dispatch wouldn't be able to find his location on an interstate or county road.
"Yes, I am very concerned," Lang said. "My wife may not know where I'm at and I may not be able to communicate"
"We couldn't operate on what the state's giving us," said Sheriff George Ballard.
Fees collected from land lines and cell phones were cut by the state, which now controls all 911 call funding.
Which means less money to help with much needed upgrades.
"We're going to have to upgrade our software, and that's going to have to get paid for somehow," Sheriff Ballard said.
Sheriff Ballard says it's going to be several years before they consider purchasing the next generation software. For now, dispatchers are advising drivers to always be aware of their location in case of an emergency.
Copyright 2012 WFIE. All rights reserved.
The software, Next Generation 911, aims to standardize 911 call systems across the United States.
