DEKALB COUNTY, Ga. — DeKalb County officials have confirmed 53 addresses were accidentally deleted from the county's 911 database during a computer upgrade in April.
Those include eight single family homes, one business, and 44 addresses associated with four different apartment complexes according to Channel 2 investigative reporter Jodie Fleischer. The county could not immediately confirm how many residents were impacted.
Public Safety Director William Z. Miller confirmed he began looking into the problem last month after Channel 2 Action News investigated a call in which it took dispatchers 34 minutes to get an ambulance to a man who was in anaphylactic shock.
"Obviously it was a huge problem here in DeKalb County and that's something they really need to take a big look at and address," said Travis Hite.
Hite's fiancée called 911 and gave the correct address, 1468 Briarwood Road. But the address didn't show up in the database, so dispatchers instead sent an ambulance from across the county to Briarwood Drive.
Miller said the county still isn't sure why the addresses were deleted, but he has commissioned an outside company, GIS Data Resources (GDR) Solutions to find out. Miller also expects the company to provide a list of all existing errors in the county's address data at no cost to taxpayers. The company could earn a fee for implementing any repairs to the errors it finds, according to Miller.
Hite lives in the Carlyle Woods Condominium Complex, which has more than 100 units at the same address. The county couldn't confirm how many others of the 3 apartment complexes affected were for multiple units also.
"I'm glad that I'm able to help out the community. If nothing else is done, hopefully by what happened to me hopefully it will translate into maybe saving someone else's life down the road," said Hite.
Hite applauded the idea of auditing the address database. "It's a good first step but it's going to be interesting to see if there's a bigger problem," he told Fleischer.
County Commissioners' voted during a Public Safety Committee meeting last week to audit the entire county 911 system, however they still need to find a way to fund it. There was no time estimate yet for when either audit would be completed.