A computer glitch in the Orange County sheriff's 911 dispatch system sent deputies to the wrong city last month, prompting a review of the system.
     A sheriff's spokesman said that two days after the call from the South County suburb of Coto de Caza, the caller, Katherine Dalton Phillips, was strangled by her boyfriend in her home but that the computer mishap played no role in the murder.
     "She did not die as a result of the officer not going to the right address. She was alive and well the next evening purchasing Easter baskets, alcohol and groceries with her alleged killer," said spokesman Jim Amormino.
     A friend found the bodies of Phillips and her boyfriend, Sanford Floyd Cantrell, who apparently hanged himself from a staircase, Amormino said.
     Phillips, 46, called 911 at 5:11 p.m. April 13 and asked that a deputy come to her home on Brentwood, but she hung up before mentioning the city, Amormino said. He did not disclose further information about the call.
     The 911 dispatch system identified Phillips' address as being in Trabuco Canyon, about five miles to the north. The dispatcher attempted to confirm the address on a second computer system, which listed it in Aliso Viejo, several miles to the west, where deputies eventually responded. Deputies did not respond to the Coto de Caza address that day.
     "We're searching street by street to see if there's any other computer glitches and to make sure it doesn't happen again," Amormino said Wednesday. "There's no system that is completely foolproof."
     Amormino said the computer mishap was the first of its kind in the sheriff's system.
     "We encourage 911 callers to stay on the line so we can get a complete address," Amormino said. "Every dispatcher and officer in this case did everything reasonable."
     The system was installed in October 1999, and the database of streets is updated quarterly, Amormino said. Some officers are familiar with areas they patrol, but a call from Coto de Caza "is not as frequent as other places," he said.
     Many emergency systems are administered by individual police departments.
     In Irvine, the dispatch system is updated weekly in reaction to the city's growth, said Deborah Gunderson, supervising public safety dispatcher.
     "If we wait for the Thomas Guide, we'll be way behind," Gunderson said. "It's a big growth time in Irvine, so it's a constant, ongoing process."
     Dispatchers are consulted about new street names, she noted, rejecting those that are similar in spelling or sound to existing streets.

LA Times

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