Well, Maybe If They Hadn't Bought All Those Boots…

Wireless

from the politics-as-usual dept

More than three a half years ago, news emerged that the fees the state of New York had been collecting from cell phone subscribers to implement E911 systems to locate emergency callers was being spent not on the systems, but on things like rubber boots and ballpoint pens. While most of the state now has E911 for mobile callers, fifteen counties still don’t, and a new report alleges — surprise, surprise — that a lack of oversight on spending (via Textually) is to blame. While there are no juicy details of where the money the counties has received has been spent (assuming they did actually receive the fees that were collected), the ridiculousness of the story still stands. More than four years after cell phone users started paying the fees, these counties are still unable to offer the service. So despite all sorts of tough-sounding deadlines, E911 availability is still far from universal, even after all this time — and collected fees.