Dispatch officials plan open house

| Friday, April 16, 2004

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BELLE FOURCHE - Butte County dispatchers will give the cell-phone-using public the chance to try little rubber button guards as a practical public safety tool at an open house from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. today, April 16.

The button guards are for cell phones and are seen as a potential cure for accidental 911 calls. Belle Fourche 911 Center director Cheryl Tevik became interested when she heard about Pinellas County, Fla., distributing button guard kits to the public.

"We are a small community with a small budget," Tevik said. "We can't afford the public safety miscues that come from bogus 911 calls."

Tevik will distribute 250 button guard kits to people with cell phones at the open house, which will be at the Belle Fourche City County Dispatch Center, 830 Sixth Ave. Each button guard kit contains three items: a 3M rubber button guard, application directions, and an alcohol wipe to remove grease and residue from the phone before application.

The FCC warns that accidental phone calls from cell phones account for nearly 50 percent of the bogus calls received at 911 call centers around the country. The problem was created when manufacturers produced cell phones with hot buttons to speed dial 911 — usually the "9" button. These phones can unintentionally send a phantom call to a 911 center. In January 2003, most manufacturers stopped producing phones with the hot button feature. However, about 40 million cell phones with a 911 speed-dial feature remain in use today.

Lissner designed permanent, stick-on, raised rubber guards to surround and protect the "9" and the "call/send" buttons on the most common models of cell phones.