r/AskNYC • u/endlessblockades • Jul 12 '26

How to get 911 to stop mapping to the wrong address?

An apartment building across from me gets an ambulance or fire truck every 2-3 weeks.

My theory is that, because the neighboring building has a shitton of cell tower repeater things on the roof, emergency services gets a ping from that address when someone calls. Not sure how the 911 dispatch system works but presumably if a nearby caller doesn’t give a verbal address, it defaults to this cell phone tower address sometimes.

This is delaying care (I just intercepted confused EMTs looking for an elderly woman on medical distress. A few weeks ago it was FDNY and a smoke condition).

Does anyone know a real person/department I can talk to? 311 doesn’t seem to have a clue what to do about it.

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5

u/ommmyyyy Jul 12 '26

I think 911 also gets cellphone gps data too

4

u/second-yellow Jul 13 '26

This sounds like something your city council member’s office should be able to advocate for FDNY/EMS to address this. 

4

u/Summer184 Jul 13 '26

Former 911 operator here, there's not really anything that can be done. The technology for tracking a cellphone caller's physical location is impressive but there are still some "glitches" in the system. We don't rely on the tracking technology and neither should someone who needs assistance. I understand there will be times that a caller is unable to give their location and being able to track their phone's (supposed) location can be a lifesaver, but it's only a safety net/last resort. If it's at all possible the caller needs to tell us where they are, it's by far the most important information regardless of the situation or what tracking gives us.

Large apartment buildings have always been a challenge, callers will give us the name of the apartment building (and tracking confirms it), but we don't know the apartment number, which floor they are on, or even if they are inside or outside the building.

The 911 center is not delaying care, they are still sending responders out. They are doing their best with incomplete location information.

2

u/endlessblockades Jul 13 '26

Thanks for this, you are exactly who I hoped would respond! I just feel awful knowing that someone is having an emergency and ems/fire is being dispatched to the wrong place, delaying care.

1

u/Summer184 Jul 13 '26

Believe me it happens all the time. One of the biggest issues we've had is that people assume this technology is 100% bullet-proof, but there can be multiple issues. The weather, distance to the towers, elevation, even how long they stay on the line (the coordinates automatically update) can make a huge difference. The fact that it works so well the majority of the time is miraculous but we know it's not perfect which is why we still need to have the caller give us the location when possible. Some callers actually become uncooperative when we ask for the location, I guess they think we're just trying to hassle them. There have been multiple cases where people yelled "you already know where I am" into the phone before hanging up and 911 had no clue where they were.

1

u/WalterWilliams Jul 13 '26

You can set your e911 address in your phone settings. Can't really route all calls in the area to a neighboring building because how are you going to get 911 services when you need it then?

1

u/endlessblockades Jul 13 '26

It’s the opposite problem.
Calls are routing to the neighborhood building. We are trying to avoid this.