911 gives no answer??

[suzanne1020U.S.]

Yep

LOL.....I'm sharp about things like that:D

[Greg347471]

There was a bad accident outside one of the places I worked in CT. I called 911 it took 12 mins before I grabbed my cell phone and called a officers cell phone That I knew was on duty. The Officer called it in, then 20 mins later we got a call back from the 911 dispatcher wanting to know why we hung up. I told them if it took you that long to answer clearly you had more work then you could handle so I would be keeping you from unanswered calls.

[TXCharlie]

So, she called and then hung up numerous times?

So that means that all those 911 operators were trying to call her back, getting busy signals, trying a second call back, then trying an operator interrupt which would come back as "off the hook", thereby tying up resources.

Yeah, sometimes my Sprint cell phone will delay an outbound connection for up to 30 seconds, during which time it's totally silent... My wife would wonder why I would call and not say anything.

I used to hang up and retry until I figured out what was going on. I never tried that experiment calling 911 though :D

On the other hand, there have been several priority calls in Dallas that didn't get responded to for more than 20 minutes (according to the news media) - Including one guy on Neighborhood Watch patrol holding a burglar at gunpoint for 20 minutes while he was talking to the 911 dispatcher. Not a comforting scenario.

I would love to see the actual statistics on priority response times in all our cities - Anyone know where to get those???

[Valor55]

If there are no available units it may take a while to respond to an emergency call. It happens. Our priority calls when get aired. If you are close or can clear off a call you'll go but sometimes you are tied up on priority calls and stuff just holds for a while.

[TXCharlie]

Yeah, our town has a cop who used to work in Dallas... He said it was nonstop on a good day, and if the stuff hit the fan, there was simply no way to keep up. They need about 2,000 more officers. I think they're getting 800.

[StationM]

There was a bad accident outside one of the places I worked in CT. I called 911 it took 12 mins before I grabbed my cell phone and called a officers cell phone That I knew was on duty. The Officer called it in, then 20 mins later we got a call back from the 911 dispatcher wanting to know why we hung up. I told them if it took you that long to answer clearly you had more work then you could handle so I would be keeping you from unanswered calls.

Whenever something big happens, lots of people call in, many of them have no useful information, they just feel they need to call. 30+ people may call about a bad accident, and there are maybe 10 calltakers answering the calls, figure in the time it takes to gather and input the information, notify any other responders, and yes, you may have to wait for your call to be answered.

Some of those people may hang up before getting through. My agency always calls back hang-ups and abandoned calls before answering the next incoming, in an effort to not delay a response if needed. It is very frustrating to listen to the pending call alarm while you may get stuck in a voice-mail tree because the call came from a business, in order to talk to a real person.

Throw in the people that argue with you for not giving you the phone number they wanted. (Because they don't want to pay 50 cents for 411) The people that need to be given the non-emergency number (repeatedly, because they don't have pen and paper) And yes, those calls where we stay on the line because it's a crime in progress, and you can see the possibility for delays.

Please just stay on the line, even for a misdial. Know where you are, and a few landmarks when you do get through so we can send officers to the correct place. Please tell me what's going on when you call, don't just scream "Get here now!" and hang-up. We will try a call back for more information.

And a word on VOIP - I once got a 911 call from someone using VOIP. The only problem was he had moved from my area to Hawaii. He kept getting my agency (in So Cal) because they had not updated his account to the Hawaii address. It was a medical emergency too. We went thru the operator to get him to the correct agency.

[Valor55]

Yeah, our town has a cop who used to work in Dallas... He said it was nonstop on a good day, and if the stuff hit the fan, there was simply no way to keep up. They need about 2,000 more officers. I think they're getting 800.

We need 95-150 and we are getting 10. :rolleyes:

[freshgirl]

Know where you are, and a few landmarks when you do get through so we can send officers to the correct place.

I used to relieve our dispatcher went I worked for animal control. It would always amaze me how many people have no idea where they are or the cross street for their house. We were a county agency and some people would even give us the wrong city.

[pmfc]

Whenever something big happens, lots of people call in, many of them have no useful information, they just feel they need to call. 30+ people may call about a bad accident, and there are maybe 10 calltakers answering the calls, figure in the time it takes to gather and input the information, notify any other responders, and yes, you may have to wait for your call to be answered.

That happened to me on Thanksgiving evening when I witnessed a wrong-way driver collide with another vehicle. I got busy signals on 911, no matter how many times I tried to call. Not a prerecorded message or person putting me on hold, but actual busy signals.

See my post in General Topics 1 for the details.

[StationM]

That happened to me on Thanksgiving evening when I witnessed a wrong-way driver collide with another vehicle. I got busy signals on 911, no matter how many times I tried to call. Not a prerecorded message or person putting me on hold, but actual busy signals.

See my post in General Topics 1 for the details.

Thanksgiving Day? I would guess the circuits were busy. There are a limited number of circuits for phone calls - and Thanksgiving Day is one of the days were everyone is calling family.

[Stan Switek]

911 is so misued in many places, it is barely usable. We have people calling in parking complaints, barking dogs & every CS thing you can think of. They are simply too lazy to dial the seven digit number. 911 on a cell phone? Good luck getting through. The morons have ruined it.

[MDEMT280]

911 is so misued in many places, it is barely usable. We have people calling in parking complaints, barking dogs & every CS thing you can think of. They are simply too lazy to dial the seven digit number. 911 on a cell phone? Good luck getting through. The morons have ruined it.

I know around here, the 7 digit (10 digit for us) number isn't publicized as well as it should be. The city came up with the 311 program, however, for non-emergency calls. It's something that's more likely to be remembered, I think.

[james13f]

Yeah 311 works pretty well here. Except-

Me: 911 do you need police, fire or medic?
Caller: No, I just need animal control
Me: You need to dial 311 for animal control
Caller: OK, do you have that number?

:eek:

[Lawson]

I wish there was a common 3 digit number for non-emer. calls. Everybody pretty much knows, if you need police, EMS, or fire, 9-1-1 will get you in contact with them. Most people around here don't know that 704-2740 is the number for dispatch... and why would they? It's just something people don't seek out... most people Ive talked to about it, didnt even know there was any such thing as a "non-emer. number".

If a number like 3-1-1 got popular and got widespread use around the country, I bet things would work out a lot easier for 9-1-1 operators.

[StationM]

We have this thing called a phone book. It's amazing, and it's delivered free to every home with a phone! It has this really cool section in the front with blue trim on the pages, and it lists every single level of government you can think of by department AND area!

It's awesome! ;)