Called 911 yesterday

[ecvjohn]

ORIGINAL: Live2Ride That is absolutely rediculous. You are put on hold for an emergency?!?! How many frickin emergencies are there if you have to be put on hold?! I could understand more if it was a non-emergency and you were put on hold. That's pretty scary and I hope I never have to experience that if I'm ever involved in an emergency situation. You would be amazed at how many "emergencies" there are in my county alone. Seems a lot of new americans think a hangnail warrants a call, not to mention the people that call when the contractions are 1 minute apart. God forbid you throw little Johnny in the car when he's sick, don't want any messes in the Hummer.

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[cobrabob]

Having been in LE for many years and did my time on the other end of those 911 lines after being injured on the street and sent there for modified duty while I recovered I can tell you. 911 is used for so many things it is not meant for that it can be busy when you call. There are only so many lines and so many operators to answer what should have come in on a non emergency line or had no business coming to the Police at all because a lot of people are just to stupid to figure things out for themselves. I am surprised though that you didn't have to press 1 for English.

[petemac]

It's busy because all the illegal aliens are calling 911 to find out where the closest emergency room is to get some free medical care. [:@]

[EasternSP]

When they go the route of "Press 1 for english, Press 2 for alien", that's how they will sort out who they want to serve first.

[sknyfats]

Another small tip or two to help alleviate this: get active in your local politics - even if its just to vote or make the occasional phone call to your local reps. Check out the voting records of how many times different initiatives fail which would've paid for more cops, firefighters, equipment, etc. On the other side of the coin, you may say "Why should I pay x amount more dollars when they've wasted the last x amount of dollars?" - well, that's when your voice needs to be heard.

The system can & does work - as long as "the people" utilize it. If/when everyone just lets things go - and talk about stuff with their friends - nothing will ever change. Use your goverment. Elect people that will do what needs to be done.

Sorry - didn't mean to make this political - but its a big part of the reason why so many city infrastructures are going to hell in a handbasket nowadays...

[ecvjohn]

ORIGINAL: sknyfats

Another small tip or two to help alleviate this: get active in your local politics - even if its just to vote or make the occasional phone call to your local reps. Check out the voting records of how many times different initiatives fail which would've paid for more cops, firefighters, equipment, etc. On the other side of the coin, you may say "Why should I pay x amount more dollars when they've wasted the last x amount of dollars?" - well, that's when your voice needs to be heard.

The system can & does work - as long as "the people" utilize it. If/when everyone just lets things go - and talk about stuff with their friends - nothing will ever change. Use your goverment. Elect people that will do what needs to be done.

Sorry - didn't mean to make this political - but its a big part of the reason why so many city infrastructures are going to hell in a handbasket nowadays...

Great point but this issue is not about manpower on the street per say, it is about an increasingly ineffective system
thats not been updated to handle the volume of calls received. They put IVR/ACD into place so it would at the very least get answered. The worse thing happening out here anyways is Engine Cos and ambulances gettingdispatched to two different areas for the same call.

AMR sucks azz out here when it comes to running the EMR dispatch, specifically San Juaqin(sp) county.

When I was in the game we had 7 minutes to arrive on scene from TOC, we had a 96% success rate.
I watched a little girl get injured the other day and it took no less than 15 minutes for the Engine to arrive and the ambulance was three minutes behind it. Mind you they were three blocks away and came from the same station.
If thats efficiant let me die quickly please..........
This was in Sacramento County.

[KeithB]

Not good[&:]

[wlbowers]

ORIGINAL: sonar_chris

My wife and I walked over to the 7-11 for some water and juice. Well on the way out there was this older guy who was crawling on the ground and he had no pants on. He was naked from the waist down. He appeard to either be mentily disturbed or really drunk. So I figured this guy probably needs some kind of help. So I get the good old cell phone out and call 911. got a voice recording about if this is an emergency press 1 so I did. Then I got something I would have never expected. "Sorry, all of our operators are busy please stay on the line and we will be with you shortly". HOLY $HIT! I got put on hold for a 911 call.... 5 minuets later someone answerd the phone and I told them what was going on and they said they would send out the cops. What if this was a life or death emergency, like someone got shot or something like that. I was on hold for 5 minuets before I got to talk to anyone. I have really lost faith in our states and federal goverment now. By the way this is in California.

Chris

If a 911 operator gets a crap call. They should have a button they immediately press that transfers the caller to a recording that tells them their call is a non emergency and $300 will be charged to their phone bill.

"911 What is your emergency?"

Is it Tuesday or Wednesday?

My watch has stopped what time is it? I don't want to miss Judge Judy.

OK, I'm confused. We are only in the summertime, or we're still in the wintertime? I'm confused.

I'd also like to be connected to Domino's Pizza please.

911 operator: "That's not a, this is 911, 911 is for police and fire emergencies,"
Caller: Well I can't get through on the Pizza Hut line or 411.
911 operator: "OK, well, ma'am, 911 does not connect you to Domino's Pizza,"

I have lost my car keys in a dumpster. Can you sent a Police Officer to get in the dumpster and find them.

Caller: She didn't have it her way at Burger King.
911 Operator: "Ma'am, we're not gonna go down there and enforce your Western Bacon Cheeseburger," the 911 operator said.

Although these calls sound funny, they are a serious matter.

"They could be keeping us from responding to a true emergency, from saving someone's life," Herron said.

The neighbors dog just ran my cat up the tree and he won't come down.

[HTRAUD]

Hmmm intersting,,,

Let's set the record straight. 9-1-1 is for emergencies not for general information. A man, who was probably drunk, crawling around on the ground with no pants is not an emergency in San Diego, Dallas, NYC, Phoenix etc. It might be an emergency in Kingman, Sandia, or Boise. As others have surmised, the general population will dial 911 for any reason whatsoever from asking for directions to telling the cops there are people speeding on the freeway -- duh!

How many of you have your local police/fire numbers programmed into your phones? That would alleviate many issues associated with 911.

In California, cell phone callers who dial 911 are connected to the Highway Patrol not the local jurisdiction. Once your call is answered it can be redirected to the local jurisdiction. But that takes time and who know how busy the local jurisdiction is. I bet San Diego PD or FD is pretty darn busy most of the time.

Imagine how many calls the CHP receives in any given hour -- emergency or non-emergency. I wonder how many call takers are answering the phones, dispatching service calls, and speaking to the cops working the streets? Probably not as many as you might think.

911 in the city or urban area is a whole lot different than 911 in say Sedona, Az or Branson, Mo. More people more calls. Longer responses.

The 911 system is old, but it is the best we citizens have. Would you vote for a tax increase to improve the system especially if you never use it?

[Newhog]

ORIGINAL: cobrabob

Having been in LE for many years and did my time on the other end of those 911 lines after being injured on the street and sent there for modified duty while I recovered I can tell you. 911 is used for so many things it is not meant for that it can be busy when you call. There are only so many lines and so many operators to answer what should have come in on a non emergency line or had no business coming to the Police at all because a lot of people are just to stupid to figure things out for themselves. I am surprised though that you didn't have to press 1 for English.

Here in Scottsdale we actaully had a Council Person call 911 all of the time to get directions. Somehow??? A news station got wind of it and it did story after story on it. That person stopped

But, this does illustrate just how over whelmed 911 can be and the type of calls they get that are not an emergancy. It's Sad.