A growing number of New Jersey dispatch centers are jumping on board with an upgraded 911 response service that's adapted to handle a world of calls from smartphones instead of landlines.
"The problem for years with cellphone 911 calls is they would go to the closest cell tower," said Martin Pagliughi, director of the Cape May County Office of Emergency Management.
Over the years, Pagliughi said, calls in the lower portion of the county would accidentally be bounced to a tower in Delaware. Calls from the northern part of Avalon would be misinterpreted as coming from the next town over.
Since the beginning of June, though, pinpointing these mobile calls has become much easier for the folks taking them at the county's new central dispatch center.
Using the program RapidSOS, dispatchers can pinpoint a call within 150 feet of the caller.
"And it can also track a person if they're walking or driving or anywhere calling from a cellphone that's moving," Pagliughi said.