If a person is alone and they have an emergency where they are rendered unable to speak, for some reason, and the telephone is their only chance for help, what should they do in attempt to communicate, and what does the 911 dispatch do in such a situation?
Possible examples are endless, but some that come to mind:
[ul]
[li]The person is choking on a piece of food.[/li][li]The person is hiding in from an ill-doer and doesn’t want to give away their location.[/li][li]The person is having a physical attack, like a stroke, heart attack, etc.[/li][/ul]
I have often theorized that if I were in such a predicament, I’d try repeatedly punching Morse Code for S.O.S. when the 911 dispatcher answered. I’m not sure the dispatcher would “get” it though. They might think it was a child goofing off.
I can’t speak for all jurisdictions, but typically what happens if there is a 911 call and silence on the other end, they’ll send law enforcement to do a “welfare check.” An ambulance may dispatched as well.
The 911 dispatcher might just send an ambulance out to the location regardless of what they heard or did not hear on the line. I called 911 once because I thought a nearby building was on fire. I gave the address of the building in question, but the fire department instead showed up at the location I was calling from and asked a lot of questions before going to the next place.
Most (not all) 911 call centers get your number (like Caller ID except you can’t block it) when you call them. They can use that to get an address. AFAIK it’s standred procedure to send police and EMTs (possible fire) if they get a call, but the caller can’t comunicate. Morse code wouldn’t help much since operators aren’t trained in it. Later on it could be decoded when the recording it played back. And if you call on a cell phone you’re screwed.
It’s not who you get, but what information is transmitted along with the call. You can get the location of the calling phone. http://www.fcc.gov/911/enhanced/
CHP in California has responsibility for responding to cell phone 911 calls. This was apparently done on the theory that most people would call 911 from a cell phone because they were on a freeway.
In reality, many of the 911 cell phone calls come from places other than the freeway, or are mistakes (don’t lock your phone, and accidentally punch the “9”). So this has led to the CHP 911 call center being overwhelmed. Overwhelmed means longer response times. So in certain cities, CHP has given 911 over the municipal 911 center for response. But this is spotty, and hardly a long-term or blanket solution. Suffice it to say that if you have a choice between calling 911 from a landline or from a cell phone, you’re better off calling from a landline. At least in California.
Personal anecdote: My 11 mo old son was playing with the phone (‘Oh look, how cute, he grabbed the phone and he’s pushing buttons. Wait, what did he just dial?’) and dialed 911. I hung up before the operator picked up but after a ring or two. About 20 seconds later, the operator called us back and asked what the emergency was. I explained what had happened and that there was no emergency. Five minutes later, the county sheriff came to the door to ask the same question. He didn’t actually ask to come in, but clearly was peeking around me to see if there were any obvious pools of blood or muffled cries for help. The offender was eating lunch in his high chair at that point.
So, I guess that the point is that if you have to dial 911 and can’t talk they will send someone to investigate. If you have to dial 911 secretly, you should stay on the line so the operator doesn’t call back, perhaps tipping off the murderer/rapist/Jehovah’s Witness in the house.
Even if you stay on the line after mistakenly dialing 911, you will often get a visit anyhow. My daughter did this a few months ago, realized her error, and explained this to the call center. She told me about it (fortunately) and went out to meet her friends for coffee. About a half hour later a policeman was at our door, asking questions. Ordinarily I might have let him in, but my husband was ill and I did not want any strangers in the house. I explained that, and the cop left. He remained sitting in his patrol car with the lights out for a while, though. Dunno if he was waiting for something to happen, calling HQ, or taking a nap.
We were told in a Red Cross CPR course that the 911 dispatchers could turn up the audio and hear what’s going on–ie they will recognize the CPR (Cardio-Pulmonary Resuscitation) rythm of five chest-compresses and one breathe-into-the-lungs, and repeat.
So if you have a heart attack victim there, you can punch in 911 and set the phone down and start the CPR without waiting to talk.
Dialing 911 and setting the phone down (not hanging it up) seems as if it could work for having an intruder in your house, especially if he didn’t see you dial the phone. Then you could also say, “Who are you? What are you doing in my house? You’re a burgler!!” or whatever seems appropriate.
Our phone system at work triggers an alarm that displays on all of the administrator phones whenever 911 calls. That way when they show up, the receptionist know what is going on, and what extension dialed 911.
Also, when we were installing the phone system, we had to do a 911 test. You test it by (surprise) dialing 911. When you do that, they ask you a whole bunch of questions, such as: what floor are you on, how many people in your office, are you in the North, South, etc.
“That’s right! I bet that’s exactly what you are. A burglar! Admit it! Did you hear what I said? I said you’re a burglar! Don’t try to deny it. I said you’re a B-U-R-G-L-A-R–that’s burglar! Burglar! Burglar! Burglar!”
I used to live in a 991 prefix, so it was pretty common to dial 911 by mistake while calling a neighbor. The police never once came out, though – I guess the call center was used to it.
I wonder how well California’s e911 system actually works. My sister is a 911 dispatcher for a county in metro Atlanta and she gets 1-2 calls per month from people with Atlanta cellphones but who are physically in Californina (usually the Los Angeles area). IIRC, she told me that it “rarely” happens in other parts of the country.
Granted, not always the case, but my father, who is a dispatcher for a local PD North of Boston (think clams), would certainly know and recognize S-O-S on a 911 call. I can nearly guarantee, that the “full press” would be sent out to investigate such a call, even without other clues as to the nature of the call.
Who doesn’t know how do do “SOS” in morse? Don’t they teach that in the Titanic section of history? … — …
I might just be seeing something that isn’t all that common though, Dad & I are hams, but I’ve known SOS since I was a wee lad. (The only other code I know though, is CQ. -.-. --.- , no idea why only that other piece of code, I’m an evil no-code Tech)
911 and *77 (*SP) from mobile phones will in most cases get you the state police / highway patrol / gomer pyle or whatever passes for that sort of coverage in your area. I’d think with VERY few exceptions, e911 exists everywhere in the CON-US at this point. Following 9-11-01 Homeland Security put a LOT of money into that program, along with other LEO programs. My sources say the PD was very happy to see that funding. (Including a HAM 2M repeater in town, though I haven’t used it yet, as I live too far away now.)
When I first got a cell phone, I happened to be behind a SFPD officer at Smart & Final, so I asked him about the 911 thing. He said that if I’m wqithin city limits, 911 will go to the municipal call center, outside city limits will go to CHP. Seems like some pretty fine control, but I’ll assume he’s pretty much correct.
Also, dialing 08 on my phone, even when it’s locked, will dial 112, 08, and 911. I don’t know what the first two are, but once when I was driving to work, my phone was ringing. I answered and someone said, “You called emergency services?” I didn;t know what was going on, so I assured her I did not. After that, I checked my phone, and I had pocket-dialed 08.
My MIL has one of those “fallen-and-I-can’t-get-up” systems, and used it when she fell in the garage. The dispatcher couldn’t hear her, so they sent the local fire/EMT, with the police right behind them. We live nearby and had given them our number, so we got a call to come over, but they’d kicked in the back door by the time we got there. At least they put in a nail to hold the door until we got it fixed. Now we have a key stashed outside, and the 911 dispatch knows about it.