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10 Va. J.L. & Tech. 1 (2005)

handle is hein.journals/vjolt10 and id is 1 raw text is: VIRGINIA JOURNAL OF LAW & TECHNOLOGY
WINTER 2005                 UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA                 VOL. 10, No. 1
An Island of Chaos Surrounded by a Sea of
Confusion:
The E911 Wireless Device Location Initiative
DARREN HANDLERt
ABSTRACT
In most circumstances, dialing 911 from a wireless phone does not
give the caller's exact location. While this may not pose an
insurmountable problem when one is able to communicate
additional location information such as a street location, a problem
becomes evident when one is lost in a snow storm on a road,
fleeing an assailant where location is constantly changing rather
than fixed, or offshore in a watercraft where the lack of physically
identifying factors prevent location identification. Addressing the
ability of emergency first-responders to pinpoint a wireless caller's
location is a system known as the Enhanced 911 (E911) Wireless
Device Location Initiative. E911 is an ambitious and arguably
much-needed national safety net for locating wireless callers via
satellite global positioning or cellular tower triangulation
technologies on a local, state, and national level. Quite simply, the
ability to locate an individual's wireless call for help is a challenging
but necessary capability, especially when operating within an
antiquated analog infrastructure that is over-taxed by an ever-
increasing digital world. This article explores the federal and state
issues which plague full implementation of wireless E911 and
suggestions by key stakeholders on how best to confront
deployment roadblocks. In addition, this article seeks to inform
and persuade the public and private sectors of the necessity of such
a system, in addition to the benefits such a network would provide
to aid in combating some of today's asymmetric terrorist threats
that are at the forefront of our nation's national security.
0 2005 Virginia Journal of Law & Technology Association, at http://www.vjolt.net. Use paragraph
numbers for pinpoint citations.
T    Third-year law student at Cleveland-Marshall College of Law, Cleveland, OH.

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