larry@uunet.uu.net (Larry Lippman) (10/07/89)
In article <telecom-v09i0427m02@vector.dallas.tx.us> jenglish@doctor.tymnet. com (Jim English) writes: > An interesting thing happened yesterday at work. Two cop cars pull up > to the Data Center, and said that they received quite a few 911 > emergency calls that were traced to our address. Well it turns out > that the phone number making the calls is our 2400 baud Public Network > access number. One of the cops queried, "How do I write a summons to a > computer?". It made me think, if thats as far as the 911 people can > trace a call, and say our Network Control cannot trace it back to > whoever originated it, how would 911 put a cap on computer pranksters? As far as I know, there is no way for either "original" 911 service or the E911 enhanced service to block calls from a given number in any 911 central office serving area; i.e., there is no action which can be taken on the part of the public safety agency handling the 911 calls to prevent this problem from a _technical_ standpoint - except to demand that the telephone company discontinue ALL telephone service to the offending lines. While it is theoretically possible for the software in an ESS central office to block a given directory number line from dialing a 911 call, I have not heard of such a service offering. Furthermore, in my opinion it is unlikely such an option would ever be offered due to potential liability on the part of the telephone company (if you offer a feature such as this, then some telephone company craftsperson at some time is going to screw up and disable 911 for a line *in error*). As I understand the law enforcement community, this problem is going to be dumped squarely upon the subscriber whose lines are being used to make this calls. The subscriber WILL SOMEHOW SOLVE THIS PROBLEM, or someone in authority is going to be charged with "falsely reporting an incident" (or the equivalent crime in your state) and/or the public safety agency will request that the telephone company disconnect service to the affected lines. Most telephone companies have a general provision included in their tariffs permitting them to discontinue service to any subscriber in the event that said subscriber uses their telephone service to harass or otherwise interfere with the telephone service of other subscribers. Such a tariff provision could be invoked in this instance of false 911 calls. I can assure you that if this false call problem is not solved, the responsible public safety agency will bring considerable pressure to bear upon the telephone company to discontinue service as mentioned above. Any public safety agency that I can think of really does not care about the "intentions" of a subscriber whose telephone service is being abused by third parties to make false 911 calls. Such a public safety agency wants the problem stopped NOW, somehow, some way, and they don't care about the details. <> Larry Lippman @ Recognition Research Corp. - Uniquex Corp. - Viatran Corp. <> UUCP {allegra|boulder|decvax|rutgers|watmath}!sunybcs!kitty!larry <> TEL 716/688-1231 | 716/773-1700 {hplabs|utzoo|uunet}!/ \uniquex!larry <> FAX 716/741-9635 | 716/773-2488 "Have you hugged your cat today?"