No one seems to be able to get their stories straight. Just over a month after UW-Madison student Brittany Zimmermann was murdered in her Doty St. apartment and a week after the initial revelation about the 911 call from her phone was published in an Isthmus article by Jason Shepard, no one seems willing or able to set the record straight.

Union representatives from Local 720, which represents Dane County 911 dispatchers, are saying that the person who took the call from Zimmermann’s phone claims not to have done anything to violate protocol. According to a recent channel3000 article, “The dispatcher said the 911 center policy says operators should call back a disconnected call if they have time.” This contradicts what the public has been told by Dane County Executive Kathleen Falk and others, who indicated that protocol is to always return 911 calls, regardless of any other factor. Also, in direct contradiction to what officials have been saying, the dispatcher adamantly denies having hung up the call.

Too, the story from various sources differs quite a bit when it comes to the contents of that call, and whether they should have prompted the dispatcher to send deputies to the scene. Madison Police Chief Noble Wray has said that “There is evidence contained in the call which should have resulted in a Madison police officer being dispatched.” But the dispatcher and the union have now said that there was nothing of the sort in the call, only “faint background noise like a soft rustling.”

Neither a recording nor transcript of the call has been released to the public.

Cell phones and technology limitations

The confusion continues and deepens when it comes to the extent to which current 911 center tracking technology can locate cell phones. The Zimmermann call apparently lasted for around 90 seconds, begging the question of whether or not that’s enough time to get a GPS or tower reading for the phone.

In his initial press conferences, Dane County 911 director Joe Norwick stated that Madison police had specifically asked not to be dispatched to certain calls made on cell phones, due to “technological limitations.” While policy does dictate that a follow-up call be made to all phones, it does seem to be the case that only land line calls always result in police being sent to the area. With cell phones, some probable cause is required. The question then becomes, who’s telling the truth, Wray or Norwick and the dispatcher? Or if it’s not a matter of hard and fast truth, then we might ask who made the better judgment call?

According to Rock County dispatchers, who run one of “the state’s most advanced emergency call centers,” calls made from cell phones fall under three phases, developed by the Federal Communications Commission: “In Phase Zero, the dispatcher receives only the caller's phone number. In Phase 1, the dispatcher can identify the specific cell phone tower from where the call is coming. In Phase 2, dispatchers are usually able to locate the caller's phone using Global Positioning System technology within 300 meters.”

Interestingly enough, in a Portage Daily Register article from 2007 explaining newly implemented cell phone tracking technology in Columbia County, the accuracy of the system in regards to phones with GPS chips and from tower triangulation is said to be federally mandated to “find a caller's location within an area 200 feet by 100 feet from the actual location.”

That may be the mandate, but the information coming from various officials suggests that it’s not necessarily the truth of the matter.

Police were able to use cell tower triangulation to ping Kelly Nolan’s cell phone and zero in on the location of her body. In that case, though, they were searching an outdoor area and not hampered by going house to house. Still, no details about how exactly they were able to do this have been released. According to another channel3000 article, “Wray said that cell phone technology led investigators to search the area where the body was found, WISC-TV reported. Wray didn't elaborate on the cell phone technology used, but Dane County has the ability to pinpoint the exact location of cell phone calls, WISC-TV reported.”

This would indicate that police could locate cell phones even when no one is on the line, but without further details, it’s hard to know just what is and is not possible.

There have been various other cases involving the use of cell phone GPS and tower pinging to locate people making emergency calls, but most of them involved getting additional information from the callers themselves. It remains to be seen how much can be done if nothing is heard on the other line, and this is what has so worried the many people who rely on their cell phones for emergency use.

Problems with dispatchers

As a result of the various news articles about the incident, various individuals from the area have been coming forward to tell stories about frustrating encounters with 911 dispatchers. While the problems don’t appear to be systemic, they are enough to raise alarm bells and warrant a thorough audit and possible retraining of 911 center staff.

“I'm working at the store with a couple of other co-workers when this one customer that my manager had been on the phone with burst in and started screaming, threatening to kill him, and possibly us,” goes one such story from a man who wished not to be identified. “He's swiping his arms at us, pushing the computers off the counter, screaming, yelling, scaring not just us, but the other customers in the store who have all retreated to the back, because this guy is blocking the door.

“I take the chance and call 911. I quickly give them the address of the store and tell them to hurry, because there's a dangerous man threatening us. The woman on the 911 dispatch asks me to speak up and describe the nature of my emergency. So, I again enunciate as clearly as I can the address where we are at (which it really didn't sound like she was taking a note of) and that there is a man there threatening us--and add, hastily that the reason I have to be quiet is because I'm trying not to attract his attention.

“She asks me to describe the man. I ask if they're sending anyone. She says they need a description first. I give a general description, and by the time it takes me to do all of that, I learn that several people in the store also called in, too. Oh, and the guy leaves on his own. So, then, it's a very long wait, like, over twenty minutes. I know that doesn't seem like a long time, but consider this: The police station is less than fifteen blocks from our location.”

Another person relayed this story to me: “Earlier this year I called 911 to report a pedestrian being hit by a car on University. Myself and four others could not get through for several minutes. Luckily an off-duty EMT was several cars back and rushed to the scene.”

And it goes on: “I was approached by a very drunk ‘street person’ (on the NW corner of State and N. Francis just by the back gate to the towers) that he needed an ambulance,” goes yet another tale. “I obliged his request and called 911. I told the dispatcher the situation and she asked me for the address. I told her I did not know the address because I was on the street and was at the NW corner of State and Francis across from State Street Brats. She told me she could not dispatch units without an address. I looked around and could not see any addresses where I was and told this to the dispatcher who still refused to send units without an address.

“After going back and forth several times I walked to the nearest business front door which was City Bar and gave her that address. I’m not sure if this was the dispatcher being difficult or a policy/limitation of the 911 system but there is absolutely no reason that I can see for the 911 center not to be able to dispatch units to a location based on a well known intersection and a well known business name. If this had been a more urgent emergency I may not have had time to walk over to City Bar to find that address. Would the dispatcher not have sent a unit if I said I was being shot at or a rape was occurring at the NW corner of State and N Francis across from Brats?”

Perhaps the most troubling story I’ve been told comes from another area source who wished to remain unidentified.

“On a Sunday morning some months ago, I answered the bell buzzing and there was a 19ish, earnest, crew-cut and well-spoken man asking if I heard anything like a woman in distress.

“Sure enough, on investigation, we heard through a door a neighbor woman crying and obviously in distress.

“The young man explained, in colorful language, that he would like to take care of the matter himself but he was on leave from the Army (he may have said Army Rangers) and was trained in hand-to-hand techniques that made it illegal for him to kick the shit out of whoever was causing the woman harm.

“We went to the woman's door, and listened again to crying and distress.

“I called 911, per the gentleman's request, explaining the situation and requesting a unit be sent over right away, please.

“The 911 operator was the height of skepticism, asking for more details after I had given her my name and address, which 911 already had because I was calling from my Charter Comm. phone, and a brief description of the situation. I said words close to, 'Look, just send someone over, for Christ’s sake. There's a woman in trouble.'

“The operator said that she ‘didn’t like my attitude.’

“That pissed me off. So I told the operator get off her ass and send a unit. No agreement from the operator, so I gave the phone to the Army dude.

“So, we both again went to the door with phone in hand, knocked this time, and a crying, bleeding (from arms and face) woman answered, and we apologized for the intrusion and explained we just wanted to make sure she was okay.

“The Army guy saw the man who was the perpetrator and proceeded to yell forcefully words close to 'you do not hit women!'

“The perp split and we waited some 20 minutes before a unit showed up who interviewed everyone. The responding officer was excellent and thorough.

“The 911 operator was officious, slow, uncomprehending, and lacking focus on the fact that two people were trying to help a woman getting beat on.”

Training would appear to be an issue in these cases at least, but according to a study conducted in 2004 by an outside consultant, poor staffing may also be part of the problem.

Serious review required

Between the contradictory stories coming from various city and county officials, incidents like the ones described above, and the increasing use of cell phones over land lines, it would seem high time for a serious review of 911 procedure, policy and technology. The FCC mandates certain capabilities which, according to past news releases, are supposed to have already been implemented in the area. Based on the events of the past month, however, this doesn’t seem to be the case.

Dane County supervisors have called for an immediate audit of the 911 center. County Board Chair Scott McDonell says “an audit would focus on whether the county's procedures are being followed and would be conducted by an outside firm.”

That seems like the very least that needs to be done. Further investigation into how the situation was handled and how procedures can be improved in the future are crucial if officials hope to restore public trust in the emergency system. More important, perhaps, is the fact that if policy had been followed more closely in the first place, police might have been able to better track down Zimmermann’s killer in the crucial hours and days immediately following the murder. Instead, they were sent on a wild goose chase to Middleton, where a call that came in to the 911 center shortly after the call from Zimmermann’s phone was traced and wrongly attributed to Zimmermann.

Beyond the 911 center’s handling of calls, though also extremely important, the community has been left to wonder about the efficacy of Madison police when it comes to handling these serious crimes. Several murders from just the last year or so remain unsolved. Without even a little bit of disclosure from officials, we can’t know if there’s more that could be done, or if the details of the cases are even more complicated than we think. The Zimmermann 911 call only came to the public’s attention because of the efforts of a tenacious reporter. In a story so fraught with questions, it seems appropriate to end on one: what other crucial details, ones that wouldn’t hamper the investigation, remain hidden?

(article has been updated for clarity, specifically in regards to not knowing if it was Ms. Zimmermann who actually made the call)