I got a good question

[Jay7376]

Every once in a while I will be dispatched to a 911 hang-up from a cell phone and dispatch will get a GPS hit on the cell phone. Generally, the caller is in a vehicle so the GPS location will be several minutes old by the time I receive it. Doesn't do much good in a situation like that.

[Scooby1]

There was a fire around town here the other day and I was talking to a local dispatcher about it, and she told me how exactly a situation like that unfolds.
She said it begins with the people in the building on fire calling 911, then the people within viewing distance of the fire, then begins this outward ring of people calling in, whoever can see the smoke basically, as far as several miles/kilometers away. She said basically the phones were tied up with people calling in about the fire for 45 minutes.

Also there is a system where if there are more than X number of calls coming in and the phone lines are tied up, the call then transfers to another department approx. 20km north of here. Obviously hard for them to dispatch a call down here, being in a different city.

Basically, espeically when its busy, it might be a minute or two before the call goes through, and if they are short staffed, it might be even longer.

In the department here, there are usually 6 people on shift, 3 dispatching, and 3 taking calls, but at the moment they are 2 people short each shift. Thats only 2 people taking calls. And after 6pm all non-emergency calls get transferred to them as well, so between 6pm and 9am there are not only non-emergency but also 911 calls going to only 2 employees, that makes for quite a night especially when it gets busy!

[Creeker]

In most of the states I have been thru, you could also call "*HP" or some variation and you will reach the Highway Patrol, if all else fails. They can in turn either transfer you or relay the info.

My former agency had a deal worked out with a local Verizon where any of us could call "*COP" and reach our non-emergency line.

[MrJim911]

99% of the time it isn't really GPS that gets us the general locaion of a Phase II caller, but as someone else mentioned, tower triangulation. Actual GPS would require a satellite link up which no 911 center in the country can afford. Unless one of them got a REALLY nice grant from the feds.

And there should be no lag on their location and the time of the call. (Unless of course they are in a moving vehicle) The time they call and get someone, it will plot where that call is at, at that time.

[WhiteLite]

Our system in this county is probably a bit different than most places. The call comes into the central 911 PSAP. This is a center operated by the county.

They then figure out where the caller is and what kind of emergency they have, i.e. police, fire, ambulance, and then transfer the call to the appropriate agencies 911 line. Probably not very efficient.

My agency only has two dedicated 911 lines, if both of those are in use, the transferred call rolls onto one of the normal business lines into dispatch. (of course, there are only 2 people in dispatch most of the time anyway, so at that point, the third call might ring for a while before being answered, depending on the urgency of the first 2 911 calls.) Fortunetly the 911 center knows this, and usually will take the call on their own and then relay the information to us.

As previously mentioned, similar to the other posters dispatch center, ours takes all police,fire, and public works (gas, water, street dept, etc) calls after hours. Sometimes it gets downright busy in there. 911 lines always take priority (mandated answer on the second ring,) but if there are 8 lines ringing, it might take us a moment to see the 911 line lit up as well.

All in all, initial call to 911 here puts you to the central center, not to us. They then (usually) transfer the caller to the right agency.

Crazy system, don't ya think?

[DeadEye]

Interesting to see how it works in the US!

I work part-time for the New Zealand Police, and thought I'd put my $0.10 in how our lot works - (and as we are a small nation, we have 1 national police force).

Informat rings 111. (NZ equiv of 911, although we do have a non emegency traffic number of *555)

Operator from the main NZ telco answers the call, and finds out - Police, Fire, or Ambulance. Then the call is routed to the appropriate services call centre - of which NZ has 3 of each - One for the South Island, and 2 for the North. If the call is not answered within 75 seconds, it gets routed as a priority call to another comms centre. (Call taker takes call where-ever - doesn't matter - send it to the appropriate dispatcher automatically, according to the location of the incident.)

Unfortunately for our Communcation Centres, we don't have the GPS function on our cellphones. The two (yes, two) main carriers both say it would be an excellent idea, so long as they don't have to pay for the GPS items.

Currently AVL is "in the works" but for some reason is taking ages, as we had it running on a small scale a few years ago for the APEC meeting in Auckland. (And the Ambulance service has it in all their vehicles. . . .)

[CRO]

Very much the same here in Australia. Our emergency line is 000, and 112 for GSM Mobile phones. If our 000 lines are running hot they get diverted through to extra phone lines and if they aren't picked up then they get diverted through to another comms centre.
Ours is basically the same as NZ in the telephone service provider answering the call and then transfering it through to the required emergency service.

CRO

[CPDZone9]

Understaffing.

Or some major incident where everyone in the neighborhood is calling is as if they REALLY think that we aren't already getting calls about the exact same incident because they're the only ones with pertinent information about said incident and...

Am I rambling too much here?

[Valor55]

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[jamez]

Thank you for calling 911.

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Your call is important to us. Your call may be monitored so we can laugh at you at a later time. Please don't expect us to be mind readers or to be on site in 2 seconds flat. If you've called because your too chicken sh!t to talk to your neighbor like a person, we'll tied up on those type calls before we can handle your emergency. Thank you and good luck.

[Drummadude]

I'm in police explorers and took a tour of the local dispatch center. If a cell phone or landline call comes in, the software will automatically find where they are calling from. With a cell phone, it's GPS; with a normal phone, it's the address of where you're calling from.
It's a good system.

[partially on-topic]

I once had a dream where some pedophile picked me up and held me at gunpoint. We had a struggle but I took the his gun and well, shot him for my own safety. I then called 911, and they were rude and ignorant. First one transferred me to another lady, the other hung up on me.
I hope that NEVER happens in real life.

[/partially on-topic]

[Creeker]

I'm in police explorers and took a tour of the local dispatch center. If a cell phone or landline call comes in, the software will automatically find where they are calling from. With a cell phone, it's GPS; with a normal phone, it's the address of where you're calling from.
It's a good system.

[partially on-topic]

I once had a dream where some pedophile picked me up and held me at gunpoint. We had a struggle but I took the his gun and well, shot him for my own safety. I then called 911, and they were rude and ignorant. First one transferred me to another lady, the other hung up on me.
I hope that NEVER happens in real life.

[/partially on-topic]

Note to self:

Put this thread on "ignore"
:rolleyes:

[MrJim911]

No 911 center I'm aware uses GPS. It's too expensive. Cell phone locations are determined by a tower triangulation method. And only about half of the nations 911 centers are Phase II.

[Drummadude]

No 911 center I'm aware uses GPS. It's too expensive. Cell phone locations are determined by a tower triangulation method. And only about half of the nations 911 centers are Phase II.

Well, the dispatch center manager dude said it was GPS. They had a lot of stuff I don't see very necessary for the job, so I bet they probably would have the money to use GPS.

[james13f]

Well, the dispatch center manager dude said it was GPS. They had a lot of stuff I don't see very necessary for the job, so I bet they probably would have the money to use GPS.

Well the 'dispatch center manager dude' was probably putting it in idiot-speak because it's pretty obvious that you needed the translation.




...in case you didn't understand, I was calling you an idiot.