For Mark Lallak, the evolution of 911 is personal. He watched it happen in real time from behind the dispatch console.
When Lallak was working as a 911 telecommunicator in the ’90s, most calls came from landlines. Because the phone numbers were associated with fixed locations, dispatchers had a name and address associated with each phone number. If someone called in, first responders almost always knew where they needed to go.
Then as cell phones emerged, everything changed.
