911 Information

Why should I call 911?

• A serious medical emergency (chest pains, seizures, bleeding, etc.)
• Any crime in-progress (robbery, burglary, prowler, fights, etc.)
• Any type of fire (structure, vehicle, brush, etc.)
• Any other life threatening situations (traffic accidents, etc.)

What happens when you call 911?

In order to correctly assess the situation for a prioritized response, you will be asked certain questions which are vital to the safety of the caller and the responding Police, Fire or Medical units.

Location

When you call 911, the dispatcher is automatically provided with the phone number and the location that you are calling from. You will be asked to verify this information since quite often individuals call 911 from locations other than where the incident is occurring. If you call 911 from a cell phone, this vital information if not provided. It is very important that you provide the phone number and location to the dispatcher when using a cell phone.

The Problem

The dispatcher will ask “What’s your emergency?” At this point you should give a quick description of what occurred. Then you will be asked a series of questions which are extremely important to the proper handling of the call. These may include:

• Is anyone injured?
• How long ago did the incident occur?
• Were there weapons involved and if so, what type?
• What was the description of the suspect?
• Did the suspect flee, and if so, which direction?
• If a vehicle was involved, what was the description and what was the direction of travel?

Although these may seem like an unreasonable number of questions during an emergency, they are very important to emergency personnel. For example, if a burglary has just occurred and the suspect flees, the officers have a much better chance of apprehending the suspect if they have a good description of the suspect and the last known direction. More important, if the incident in question involved a weapon, the life of the officer may depend on the information given.

One common misconception of Public Safety Communications is that dispatcher wait until finishing the call before sending help. During a true emergency, the dispatcher work as a team. One remains on the line with the caller and sends the information to another dispatcher, who dispatches police officers or fire department personnel.

It is very important that you stay on the line during a call to 911 unless your life is threatened by doing so. The dispatcher will continue to ask you questions while the emergency units are en-route.