Maybe if it had been a heart attack they would have used lights and siren to get there quicker. Yeah, 1/2 hour is a long time for a 7 year old with a broken ankle, but is it really worth the life of some paramedic trying to get there 15 minutes sooner?

I'm not familiar with the location but if it was in a state park, how far away was the nearest ambulance service? Half an hour to respond to a suspected broken ankle seems pretty fast to me.

Some of the comments posted in response to this story (on the sfgate site, not here) asked how come it took authorities so long to track this guy down.

There was a rash of prank 911 calls in Alberta recently - eventually, a number of high school kids were arrested. I don't think it's all that easy to track down a 911 call.

Anyone know just how difficult it was for the authorities to catch this guy? I presume the cell phone number showed up on the 911 operator's screen, so if the phone was registered in his name, they could have tracked him down fairly easily.

On the other hand, I believe that cell phone companies are required by law to accept 911 calls even on cell phones that don't have a plan. Would he have been using a stolen cell phone or something?

Any ideas why it took 27,000 prank calls to identify the guy?

Follow-up to my post:

"Because the number did not have current subscriber information, it couldn't be tracked to subscriber records, according to [Police Lt. Christine]Orrey."

http://origin.mercurynews.com/breakingnews/ci_8266504

Edit: oops, Aardwolfe beat me to it while I was typing out my treatise...

He was using a T-mobile phone with an expired calling plan. I don't know if it was originally his phone or someone else's. Anyway, so this phone doesn't have its own phone number, so the 911 operators wouldn't say, "Ah, look, it's xxx-xxx-xxxx calling again." And since it's not on a calling plan, there's no address associated with it. So, when he calls 911 and doesn't speak, but makes weird noises, the protocols that the operators use require them to spend time listening and trying to assess the situation.

I remember back when cell phones were first getting really popular, there would be many thousands of accidental calls to 911 because on many Nokias or Motorolas (I forget which) if the #9 key is held down, it would speed dial 911 in your pocket or purse. In California, where the CHP took all cell calls to 911 back then (and still do, in most areas), because of their protocol, the operators would need to sit there with each and every accidentally dialed call and try and figure out if it was a misdial or someone really in trouble, but who couldn't speak. I remember that my non-flip Nokia would allow 911 to be dialed even with the keypad "lock" feature turned on--in case someone unfamiliar with your phone needed to call 911. I once pulled it out of my pocket with "915" on the screen, so that was a close call (ugh, no pun intended)

So, basically all you can do is wait till he calls, track down the cell tower, and then send (in this case, an FCC crew) out to that area while he is on the phone and track down his signal. Alas, it's not like on the TV show 24 where you can triangulate a cell call from a computer in about 30 seconds and then send Jack Bauer to retrieve the guy's phone.

"What is interesting to see after the number of times I've called 911 is to see how dispatchers take the control away from me. I know what to say, how to say it, and what information is important, but some of them just won't let me talk!"

When I speak to my dispatchers, they have to ask questions in a particular order, as they're typing it into a form on the computer. I wonder if that's what they're doing to you?

Or you're so organized they think it's a prank call. Maybe they're not used to that...

Sue