911 funds dwindling due to cell phones

TERRE HAUTE, Ind. (WTHI) - Shrinking 911 funds is causing concern for Indiana public safety officials.

They’re meant to keep people safe, answering calls when people are in need of help.

Vigo County Dispatchers receive thousands of calls a year. Those calls are what help 911 centers accumulate their operating funds for the year.

But recently those funds are starting to dwindle.

Rob McMullen, Director of Vigo County Central Dispatch says, "Every time we lose a land line call or land line call subscriber, that's 75 cents that’s taken away from our operating budget."

In 2008 Vigo County Dispatch received thirty-five thousand 911 land line calls.

Every year after that, calls continued to drop significantly.

By 2011 only nineteen-thousand calls were received.

"Over the past four years we've lost fifty-thousand 911 landline calls but we've gained that many in cell phone calls,” said McMullen.

Vigo Dispatchers say they are seeing an increase in 911 calls from cell phones.

As families look for ways to cut corners in a tough economy, McMullen says land lines are usually first to go.

Cell phone 911 calls give dispatch centers just fifty cents per call but legislation is hoping to raise 911 call prices to help dispatchers out.

"There looking at it, if everything goes through, they’re kind of talking about making it a dollar across the board. A dollar for cell phones and a dollar for land lines," said McMullen.

Vigo County dispatcher Caleb Manly says that money not only helps them but helps the community.

"The more money we receive, the more new equipment we obviously can get and the newer equipment we can have, the faster we can get people out there and possibly save more lives,” said Manly.

Next time a person dials 911, they might stop and think where that money is actually going and is money well spent.