system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
ELI5: Why do the police need to keep a criminal on the phone for so long to trace them, or is that Hollywood ruining my perception of reality?

As per the title, this might not even be reality, but I've never understood why this perception exists. Why can't the police just ask the phone company who rang last, or identify where a call comes from more quickly?
gpt
This isn't true any more. They used to have operators manually work switchboards to get people connected, so they would have to back trace through each of those operators to see where the previous hop was. Now, with everything digital, they know instantly.

If it is a cell phone, it takes a second to triangulate where they are based on cell towers, and then it's only accurate to a few blocks. But, you still don't need to keep someone on the phone.