I'll post the article, since the one link already appears to be dead.
Cell phones and firearms are both 'safety rescue tools' ... they're not mutually exclusive. I agree the media are nearly conspiratorial in their refusal to publish most self defense stories involving firearms.
I found the more interesting discussion to be the ready acceptance that locating cell phones was necessarily good news. I'm sure that our friends in government will never abuse this capability ...
<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>
Cell Phone, Cool Heads Save Woman
By Patricia Davis
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, August 29, 2000; Page A01
Almost immediately after taking her 911 call, James Keaton sensed that the woman on the other end of the line was in trouble, but she couldn't say why. She wasn't answering his questions directly, and she was chatting on the wireless phone like he was a friend.
"Where are you?" Keaton asked. "What's the problem?" Her answers made Keaton, a 911 call-taker with 21 years on the job in Arlington, realize that she wasn't in a position to talk. He changed his tactics--asking simple yes-or-no questions--and soon determined that she had been forced into a vehicle against her will.
The woman somehow kept her composure and was able to convey landmarks flashing by her without her abductors realizing.
Within seven minutes--as the woman laced her conversation with "Columbia Pike," "7-Eleven," "Star something" and other guideposts--Keaton, who grew up in Northern Virginia, was able to pinpoint the location of the 1993 Mazda MPV and send police cruisers racing to her rescue early Sunday.
"You're doing really well, just keep the line open," Keaton, 42, said. "I know where you are."
Steve Souder, administrator of Arlington's Emergency Communications Center, yesterday credited the composure of the woman, who had been raped by her abductors, as well as Keaton's skill for the safe conclusion.
The incident, he said, illustrates a growing trend in law enforcement: More and more 911 emergency calls are coming from wireless phones. The Federal Communications Commission said that up to 40 percent of all 911 calls now are made from wireless phones. But with the new trend comes a problem: Souder said police should have been able to pinpoint the location of the victim's call instantly, just as they can with conventional phones.
"There is technology being developed," Souder said. "We're just not getting it fast enough."
Souder said he expects the number of 911 calls from wireless phones to continue to rise, which will mean more calls coming from unknown locations. A system that allowed police to know where a call is coming from would have also helped a 24-year-old woman who used her cell phone to call police--from the trunk of her car--after she was abducted by a carjacker earlier this year in Arlington, he said.
Sunday's abduction occurred early in the morning in the District after the victim, a 29-year-old Annandale woman, took a friend home from a dance club, said Lt. John Crawford, an Alexandria police spokesman. A man she had met there called her on her cell phone and asked her location. Soon after, the man and a friend pulled up to 14th Street and New York Avenue in a maroon van and forced her inside, he said.
The men drove her to a home being renovated in the 1400 block of Juliana Place in Alexandria, where they sexually assaulted her between 5 and 7 a.m., Crawford said. She was then forced back into the van.
Police are uncertain why her abductors allowed her to use her phone, but the victim pretended to call a friend when she really dialed 911.
That call was answered by Alexandria police. "We began to coordinate where she was, and then there was a connection problem and they lost the 911 caller," Crawford said. "We alerted Arlington County."
As the van headed into Arlington, the woman managed to place another 911 call, at 7:04 a.m.
Keaton answered. When he realized there was something wrong, he began asking the yes-or-no questions.
"Is it blue?" Keaton asked about the van.
"No," she answered.
"Is it red?" he said.
"Sort of," she replied.
When the woman said the van had pulled into a 7-Eleven and that there was a store nearby, "Star something," Keaton knew where she was. He sent Arlington police to the 1100 block of South George Mason Drive.
Alexandria police later charged Juan Cueva, 27, of the 450 block of North Armistead Street in Alexandria, and Remberto Martinez-Chavez, 25, of the 400 block of South Wakefield Street in Arlington, with rape. They were being held yesterday without bond in the Alexandria jail.
"She kept a clear head and was very, very helpful," Souder said. "She was very composed. But the tears flowed when it was over."
Souder said the problem of wireless phone location will grow as more and more callers use the technology. About 86 million people now have cellular service, industry surveys say.
Travis Larson, spokesman for the Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association, said the industry is working hard to create the hardware so 911 communication centers can identify the location of a wireless call. The FCC has set a deadline for fall 2001, he said.
"We're working feverishly to meet the upcoming deadline," he said. "The technology is not in place yet. We're only one-third of the equation."
An FCC official acknowledged yesterday that developing a system that will track a wireless phone call requires coordination among many entities, including carriers, manufacturers and public safety agencies.
"We recognize this is quite complex technology," the official said.
But on Sunday, it was old-fashioned police work that caught the suspects. Keaton, who teaches at the police academy, said he just did what he tells his students to do.
"I teach people to listen to what is not being said," Keaton said. "Her choice of words was very good. I could tell that she couldn't talk to me."[/quote]
Regards from AZ
