So… No less than three times this year, I have been the “first responder” when 911 had to be called.
It’s a demographic quirk of the nieghborhood: we have a lot of social services in the area so there are a lot of residents in the 'hood who are elderly, disabled, or suffer fome kind of chronic illness. So ambulances zipping aorund aren’t that unusual. But within the last 12 months I have had to call 911 three times. Once for a guy who seemed to be having a stroke, once for a guy “in distress” who was running around in traffic due to an obvious psychotic episode (I was able to coax him to the sidewalk, and he was friendly enough, but needed help) and just now while walking home, when a guy flopped on his back and started a series of grand mal seizures.
Each time I’ve called 911 they’ve taken my name and phone number. I had to spell out my name and everything.
So… am I in some kind of “Holy crap, that Cellphone fella calls 911 a lot!” database?
Are they just taking my information in case the police or someone need to follow up? Like, if it turns out I may have been a witness to a crime but didn’t know it, or something? Will they eventually say “Sorry, Cellphone, you have to give someone else a turn dialing 911, you’ve reached your quota”…? (Each call has been a legitimate medical emergency.)
IME, it does get saved, but not in some big “These People Called 911” Database. It becomes part of the record of the call- you’d be listed as the reporting party (RP). It comes in handy when addresses are wrong or difficult to find, among other things. There’s been a couple times we’ve ended up where we were sent, but not where we should be, and we were able to straighten things out by having the dispatcher call the RP back. On other occasions, we can verify that it is the right address before forcible entry is made.
Oh, good. I can loosen the straps on my tinfoil hat. Some people go their entire lives never calling 911, meanwhile, if this keeps up I’ll be on a first-name basis with dispatch.
Tangentally related question: What did I miss? When I find an unconcious or unresponsive person, I do the whole first aid assessment for breathing, pulse, responsivness, etc. (remembering my ABCs, AVPU and all the other memory aid stuff) and that includes a sniff to see if the person’s breath smells like that fruity/acetone diabetic smell, or alcohol, or anything else unusual. I didn’t notice anything with this guy having the seizures , granted he was trashing around enough I couldn’t get too close, and during the intervals between seizures he was breathing well and his airway seemed clear.
But when the paramedics arrived, they looked at each other and said “You smell that?” “Uh-huh.” Judging by their tone I got the impression they were noticing something drug-related. What? I didn’t notice anything. When they ambulance got there, they said the same thing. Is there some kind of obvious “crack smell” or something?
I’m not sure what sort of smell it would be. I’m not a very smell-oriented medic- I think I pretty much destroyed my sense of smell in the Forest Service. I have to ask if someone smells of booze, for example.
I wouldn’t worry about it, though. What I’d want to know from you (ideally) is name, date of birth, meds, history and allergies. If they’re altered at all, it’s nice to know what they’re like normally.
Our system only keeps track of “Repeat Calls” that come in within 24 hours of each other. So if you call 911 3 times a day, the screen will show “Repeat Call” in the corner. Other than that, we don’t keep track. We’re a small office, so we personally get to know the frequent fliers, but there’s no official score card.
We also need to get the name, number and address of the reporting party for the reasons St. Urho already posted. Yes, we have a screen that tells us the info when a 911 call comes in, but it’s been known to be wrong (especially when it rains) and only lists the information that the phone company has. We don’t get any information from cell phones at all. They don’t even come in on the 911 line. Cell phone calls come in on the office number. We also have a separate paper log where we have to write down every call, so it’s a good time to verify all the RP’s info.
So no worries. 911 Dispatchers have too much going on to worry about someone who calls a few times a year with valid reports. We count those as the good people to deal with.
keep in mind if you call in an arson you will probably hear back from the cops, or the 911 peeps.
with something like that I think they want to make sure you arent the one who started the fire.
(had this happen last summer, was driving with students when one noticed a school we were passing was on fire, 911 called me back sounding rather interested until I told them I was Drivers Ed and asked if they wanted the students info as well.)
Just bumped the thread because I had to call 911 again. If they do keep a database, I am SO totally there!
My neighbors’ fire alarm was going off and lots of smoke was pouring out. Another neighbor and I thought it smelled like burnt dinner, but with no way t deal with it ourselves, the fire departments was the only logical thing to do. It was a chicken cooking in a pot on the stove. the neighbors forgot it, and went out leaving it o turn into a chicken-shaped piece of charcoal. Incredible how much smoke one little chicken can make.
They have a database and databases record things (sometimes for a very long time. that is what I work on). They key point is the data just sits there unless someone decides to do something with it and much of it is rather meaningless and just used to follow up on any data that actually is important. The big question is what do you expect them to do with it if they are obviously valid calls?
“Mr. Swallowed My Cellphone, it looks like you have been associated with with a stroke victim, a psychotic person, and a person with severe seizures just in the last year. In addition, there are some eerie circumstances surrounding the disappearance of your mobile communication device. This can’t be a coincidence. You need to come with us. Bring any essential toiletries and medication.”
I’ve been involved in a situation where the person who called 911 was contacted later because s/he had witnessed a crime and more information was needed.
When I worked in dispatch, we actually did track and had access to who called 911 previously (from that number or address) and a record of each call. It wasn’t a “black mark” unless you had a LOT more calls than that, but it was intended for people who had a history of domestic disputes or that sort of thing - so officers knew what they were getting into. Also, abuse of 911 services (such as through poorly installed alarm systems that went off when the wind blew) was fined. You shouldn’t worry about it; your calls seem very legit.
I don’t think it’d be that unusual. We didn’t have a lot of money when I was a kid, but my mom had a phone. We lived in a building with 50 apartments and I swear we were the only one with a phone, so whenever someone needed to call 911, they’d yell for my mother. Of course this was in the mid 90s when no one had cells. Now most of those people have cell phones so mom doesn’t have to call.
I mean how much hell is going to break loose if you call and the cops DON’T respond to an emergency.