Venable partner Jamie Barnett was quoted in a February 6, 2016 Baltimore Sun article on 911 calls made from cell phones. With people abandoning landlines in favor of cell phones, emergency dispatchers are having a more difficult time determining a caller's location.
Minutes "can literally be a lifetime for somebody," said Barnett who led Find Me 911, a coalition that lobbied for improved locations accuracy in 911 calls made from cell phones. "Is the person going to remain conscious?" asked Barnett. "Is the cellphone going to drop the signal? There are any number of things that can go wrong." He added that the Find Me 911 group was disappointed with new rules adopted in 2015 requiring carriers to provide a caller's location within 50 meters for 80 percent of all calls by 2021 citing stronger proposals with shorter timelines.