The county's 911 public education coordinator is helping Pinellas become a pioneer in using the button guard for cell phones.
By TERRI REEVES
Published March 24, 2004
[Times photo: Kinfay Moroti]
The rubber guards adhere to the cell phone pad over the 9 button. They come in five shapes for various phones.
In 2003, 74,000 cell phone users dialed the county's 911 service and didn't even know it.
They inadvertently pressed the 9 button on their open-faced cellular phones, usually when stuffing them into a purse, pocket or briefcase. Many cell phones produced before January 2003 have a feature that automatically dials 911 when the 9 button is pressed.
Manufacturers have stopped making the preset buttons, but many of the phones are still being used or are still sold on Web sites. There are about 40-million of these phones in use nationwide.
That means a big problem with phantom emergency calls.
"These calls are problematic," said Lori Buck, the county's 911 public education coordinator. "What do we do with them? When we get these calls, we don't even know what is going on."
Most of the bogus calls are followed up with emergency response personnel to determine if an emergency truly exists. That follow-up often bogs down emergency response systems, costing money and, potentially, lives.
Now Buck, whose job it is to curb unnecessary phone calls to 911, has spent her entire budget - about $20,000 - on a tiny new invention with a rather unremarkable name: the button guard.
Each year, Buck estimates one-eighth of the total number of calls to 911 in Pinellas County are accidental ones. In 2003, there were 558,000 calls to 911.
In January 2004, 35 percent, or 7,000 cellular calls to 911 were accidental.
Buck has purchased 30,000 of the button guard devices, which look like little black rubber doughnuts, and is distributing them free to county residents for the asking.
It's a gamble. Pinellas is the first locale to test the buttons on a wide scale.
"We are first in the world," Buck said. "Others will be watching to see how well we do. We are expecting a drastic reduction (in the phantom calls)."
Because it is a pilot program, she got a good price from the manufacturer for the button guards.
Normally the guard kits, which include the rubber button guard and alcohol wipes to clean the cell phone, retail for $2.99, with a wholesale price of $1.40. Buck got a bulk rate of 68 cents apiece.
The one-sixteenth-inch-high rubber guards adhere to the cell phone pad over the number 9 button, preventing accidental depression. They come in five different shapes for various types of phones and don't affect the direct touch feature of the phones.
Buck was first alerted to the button guard after meeting its inventor, Dale Lissner, at a public safety trade show in Salt Lake City.
"She was bright-eyed, bushy-tailed and very concerned with the problem," said Lissner, who is from the Portland, Ore., area. Lissner came to the Tampa area Tuesday to draw attention to the county's distribution program.
The 63-year-old former controls design consultant has worked for the U.S. Navy as well as the private sector. He became concerned with the problem of phantom 911 calls six years ago when his wife Sheryl accidentally dialed 911.
"It wasn't good engineering," he said. "The cell phones were wasting precious time and resources and tying up personnel needed for true emergencies."
So Lissner bought up all the cell phones he could find to study the various designs. He tested different shapes and devices on phones owned by family and friends.
When he was finally happy with the product, he applied for a patent, which cost him $16,000 and took three-and-a half years to acquire. More than $70,000 later, he now has his own business called Stop Accidental Cell Calls, to market the gadgets.
Lissner said he doesn't plan to become rich from the button guards. He hopes to assign the patent to a charitable foundation.
"I've been married 42 years, I have five kids," he said. "I am happy with life and don't need anything more. If it saves lives, that's all I want."
You can also get a button guard at Pinellas County Connection Centers. The North County Connection Center is in the Pinellas County Utilities Services Center, 2431 Tampa Rd., Palm Harbor.
The kits are available free at all nine Alltel stores in the county.
