PORTLAND, Ore. -- Portland’s 911 system lost the details on 18,482 calls in 2015, according to a report by Portland Ombudsman Margie Sollinger.
The calls came from cellphones that hung up before operators could answer them.
Sollinger’s report describes a system called “The Reno Solution” that helps screen out accidental 911 calls from cellphones. The system, called the "XMU" is meant to screen out unintentional calls. The system went live in December of 2004 and dropped calls from an average of 184 per day to 580 per day.
But the Ombudsman found a problem. Read the full report
“The problem occurs when a cellphone caller hangs up or is disconnected while waiting to speak with a 911 operator,” she wrote. “Under city policy, these calls are supposed to receive a return call to determine whether an emergency exists. However, the system does not retain the caller’s phone numbers and does not apprise operators that the call occurred,” wrote Ombudsman Sollinger.
Lisa Turlley, Director of the Bureau of Emergency Communications responded to the report. She wrote, “The XMU attendant is a complex piece of equipment and, like most technology, it is not perfect and should never be perceived as infallible.”
She disputed the number of calls where numbers are lost. “The actual number of these calls is unknown, but it is very misleading to imply that we 'lose' information from thousands upon thousands of calls received in our center,” Turley wrote.
Both agree that a solution to the system is an upgrade scheduled for the spring of 2017.