From a very young age, most children are taught to dial 911 incase of emergency, and it seems simple enough.

But behind those three simple touchtones, there is much morethat goes on. There is a network made up of everything from wiresand towers to dispatchers and responders who are activated wheneverthose three simple numbers are dialed.

Lincoln County Sheriff’s Department Capt. Dustin Bairfield, whooversees dispatch, said the computers dispatchers use are equippedwith software that will identify not only the number of the caller,but also his whereabouts, which can be important in a case like thearrest of Versey Wendell Thompson of Bogue Chitto.

“He was charged with an abusive call to emergency telephoneservices,” Bairfield said. “He pled guilty in justice court andserved two days and was fined $268.”

On May 28, Thompson called 911 around 1:45 a.m. and reported anaccident with possible entrapment of a woman who was notbreathing.

“He used a fake name and told the dispatcher the wrong phonenumber,” Bairfield said.

He added that the sheriff’s department, Bogue Chitto VolunteerFire Department, Kings Daughters Medical Center and Brookhaven FireDepartment were all dispatched to where the call was supposed to belocated.

“They all stayed in the area for a good while looking for thewreck,” Bairfield said. “Any time you take up all those emergencyservices by crying wolf, and everyone’s running code, there’salways the chance that someone’s going to get hurt.”

Because of the software that identifies the caller and showsdispatchers his location, and the use of voice recognition,Thompson was able to identified and charged.

Bairfield said the first offense for abusive calls to emergencytelephone services carries a fine of up to $5,000 and jail time ofup to a year, and possibly both. The second and third offensesconstitute felony charges, he said.

Officials also discussed efforts to combat another difficultydispatchers encountered on the job.

Many cell phones will still dial 911 when they have noSubscriber Identity Module (SIM) card or when they are out ofprepaid minutes. For some time, officials said that gave themtrouble, but updates in technology have made it possible to locatethose phones as well.

“It still gives us the phone number and location and it tracksit. Based on our enhanced 911, we’re able to tell where and whatcell phone these calls are coming from,” Bairfield said. “Thathelps us not only for the criminal aspect, but also for the peoplewho are lost.”

And, he said, the capability of tracing those phones falls inpart on the cellular companies that own the towers in the area aswell.

“As the county enhances our 911 system, the carriers are alsorequired to enhance their services. They have a certain amount oftime to enhance their equipment to be able to give us thelocation,” he said, adding that currently all the towers in thearea were compliant with the current requirements.

Bairfield explained that some of the money that pays for thosekinds of upgrades comes from 911 charges on every telephone user’sbill, both landline and cellular. But currently the sheriff’sdepartment is looking into funding for even further upgrades.

A grant would allow 911 calls to be text-messaged to lawenforcement officials, as well as including enhanced voicerecognition and other technological upgrades.

But still there is the human side of the 911 system, Bairfieldsaid.

When a major event is going on, dispatchers are usually floodedwith calls from neighbors, bystanders and passers-by. So, Bairfieldsaid, at crucial moments, dispatchers are loaded down with talkingwith callers and dispatching emergency resources.

It can become quite a load, he said.

“You can’t just hang up on the callers,” Bairfield said.”Usually, you’ll have one dispatcher tied up on 911, and one tryingto page everyone out.”

For that reason, county officials asked volunteer firefightersat a recent fire association meeting to try to minimize radiotraffic as much as possible so that dispatchers are able to hearwhen important information is conveyed over the radio.

“We know the chiefs need to know where their personnel and theirtrucks and water are, but it really helps when radio chatter iskept to the bare necessities,” he said.