The Cincinnati Police officers searching for Kyle Plush could have been using a computer map of his location to help find him as the teenager was dying in his van on April 10.
But despite a proposal to buy the mapping technology last summer, it never happened. The officers relied instead on incomplete information relayed from the city's emergency communications center, which fielded two desperate 911 calls from Kyle.
Documents obtained by The Enquirer show the city received a $578,000 proposal last summer that would have put the technology into every police cruiser.
Police dispatchers and city firefighters already had the technology, but police officers on the street did not. The proposal to give police the same ability to pinpoint the location of 911 callers stated it would improve public safety.