Help will soon be one step closer for local cell phone customers calling in an emergency.

A computerized mapping system that pinpoints 9-1-1 calls will be up and running in Jackson County within the next few weeks, officials said. Local dispatchers report that about 32 percent of calls come from cell phones, which now cannot be traced unless callers can communicate their location, said Millie Tirapelle, director of Southern Oregon Regional Communications.

"We get calls from people who are unfamiliar with where they are, and they are not able to explain to us how to get to them," Tirapelle said.

Cell phone calls typically take twice as long to dispatch as calls from standard wire-line phones, which automatically come to a dispatch center connected to a street address, Tirapelle said. The new mapping technology also will display a physical location for wire-line calls.

Under the new system, dispatchers will see a dot on a computer-generated map and corresponding coordinates within less than a second of the initial call, Tirapelle said. The nearest cell tower relays the precise location to a database that sends it to the telephone company and then on to a dispatch center, she added. Cell phones must have a feature that works with the technology.

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Pairing a coordinate with a call is invaluable to public safety workers, officials said, citing lengthy search missions for hikers and others exploring the county’s remote areas. If calling from a cell phone that could be traced with the new technology, missing people could be located and rescued in about an hour, officials said.

The county’s two 9-1-1 centers have installed necessary components and are waiting for the Oregon Office of Emergency Management to furnish accompanying software, which is expected to take several weeks, said OEM spokeswoman Shannon Nesemann. Jackson will be among the first counties to use the system, set for statewide implementation. Mapping technology to locate wireless callers is scheduled to be in place nationwide by January, OEM officials said.

Oregon’s project was ahead of schedule but put on hold for about a year during the state’s budget difficulties of 2003. The state set aside about $16 million for the technology, but approximately $10 million was diverted to stem a budget shortfall. Wireless and standard phone users now pay 75 cents per month for the system.

Reach reporter Sarah Lemon at 776-4487, or e-mail slemon@mailtribune.com.