People who use cell phones to call in emergencies from remote corners of Douglas County needn’t fear: Police and ambulance crews now will be able to find them, even if they’re lost.

Dispatchers with the county’s Emergency Communications Center flipped the switch last week on technology that pinpoints the location of a cell phone call to 911.

“We’re able to know the location within 10 feet to 100 yards of where the call came from,” Jim Denney, the county’s director of emergency communications, said at Monday’s Douglas County Commission meeting. “It’s just a wonderful thing that we have this capability.”

The ability to track cell phone locations will improve response times to some emergencies, Denney said.

The newly equipped center received its first 911 cellular phone call Friday, Denney said, for a motor vehicle accident. In that incident, he said, the need for the system was minimal.

The dispatch center can only pinpoint locations for Verizon and some Cingular users at this time. All wireless phone companies — including Sprint, Nextel and T-Mobile — have until early April to make their systems compatible with the tracking technology. Denney said cell phone users should check with their provider to find out if their wireless phone has tracking capabilities.

“Generally, most phones made in the last year have it,” he said. “But people should check.”

Dispatchers at the Douglas County Emergency Communications Center can now track calls made from cell phones. The county spent about 0,000 on the technology, which went online last week and works for Verizon and some Cingular users. All wireless companies must make their systems compatible with the technology by early April.

The county invested about $90,000 in equipment. In July 2004, the state started collecting 50 cents a month from Kansas wireless phone users to pay for the tracking technology. Douglas County anticipates receiving about $120,000 of that during the first year; so far, the figure is $75,000.

“The system should pay for itself this year,” Denney said. “But we’re still not sure how much it will cost to maintain it.”

The county’s dispatch center handled about 50,000 calls last year. About half of those were made from wireless phones, Denney said.

“We anticipate the number of calls on wireless phones to continue increasing,” he said. “Seven years ago, wireless phone calls made up about 10 percent of all calls.”

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