We've talked here before about the limitations of cellphone 911.
This tragedy is another illustration.
I am NOT saying it would have made any difference in the end here. It would not have.
But maybe in some OTHER case it might.
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So the call to 911 was made on cellphone.
Problems:
1) The person making the call had no idea of the street address.
2) Because it was cellular 911 (rather than VoIP 911 or POTS 911) this information was not available to the dispatchers either.
3) As well, the caller had no idea of the correct city. They said Minneapolis (which is in Hennepin County), it was actually Chanhassen (in Carver County).
4) The cellular 911 call actually DID reach the Carver County sheriff, and that agency provides the police service for Chanhassen. But because the caller said Minneapolis, the dispatchers were originally confused.
5) This points up the problems with cellular 911.
5b) If the response is, "Well, dammit, the local cops should know where Prince lived" my point is that this doesn't apply for an average person like Joe Smith or Juan Hernandez.
911 transcript:
http://heavy.com/news/2016/04/prince-911-call-transcript-audio-released-unresponsive-person-dead-here-paisley-park-pdf/
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TL/DR: Multiple 911 contact methods are good, but VoIP 911 with proper address verification has an advantage over cellular 911.
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