How does police forces around the world communicate? Let’s say that I am chatting on skype with a friend of mine who lives in the United Kingdom, and his house is getting robbed. He can’t call the police because he is at gunpoint. I can’t call the police because well, I am in Brazil. Calling 911 here wouldn’t be of much help, I believe. BUt there was a case (that unfortunately ended badly) of a boy here from Brazil who killed himself. A canadian person was the one who called the police, who managed to get in touch with the police department of his city. They ALMOST saved him. So… question is: How do police departments from different countries get in touch with each other?
Call international operator and tell her you need to be connected to the emergency police number for whatever country/city.
I’d start by calling my local 911 emergency dispatch. Carefully explain the situation and location of the emergency (Even though it’s in another country). The 911 dispatcher will have a lot more resources than you trying to do it yourself. The call would be relayed a lot faster than you think.
I’d worry about communication problems like this.
The OP’s scenario happened to me, more or less. I asked an international operator for the number of the police in Hull, Canada (I believe it was Hull).
Wasnt that part of the problem in the Indonesian tsunami a few years ago when they had no effective way of communicating the tsunami warning to the countries it was expected to hit?
I work in a 9-1-1 center in the Cayman Islands. On a somewhat regular basis the emergency services in Cayman need to coordinate responses with our neighboring jurisdictions in relation to incidents at sea. Regular contact lists are maintained with Jamaican, Cuban, and Honduran contact numbers as well as the US Coast Guard.
If I really need them and know they have assets nearby, I’ll just pick up the phone and call the district command center for the US Coast Guard. (Yes, they patrol in the Western Caribbean). If the incident fits their criteria they will respond. And vice versa, the US Coast Guard has called us with information requiring response by assets in Cayman. (Boat in distress, for example)
Indeed, there is a whole network of air-and-sea response assets complete with email lists and contact phone numbers that is regularly updated. I’ve had to use such data to call Egypt in relation to a Caymanian-flagged vessel in distress near their waters.
As to the other possibility… if someone in Cayman calls 9-1-1 about an emergency in another country then there are several approaches we might take. We can help to find the appropriate number to call and provide that to our caller. We may directly make the call to the appropriate overseas agency ourselves. And we may dispatch our police to speak in more depth with our caller and have the police route the information through their departmental contacts.
Further, our local police* have means to make direct contact with agencies in other jurisdictions. They coordinate in relation to suspects who may have fled the jurisdiction or if we locate a person here who is wanted overseas.
*Keep in mind, the local police in Cayman has the responsibility of local,sate, and federal police combined in the US. A small town local police department in the States might pass information through state or federal police in order to contact overseas agencies.
The United States operates the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center (a part of NOAA) as a part of the National Tsunami Warning Center. We get their alerts here in Cayman as well as taking part in a monthly test.
The PTWC sends out monthly tests via several means of contact and encourages agencies to keep their contact information up to date. They are very responsive if you don’t get the test message by one or another means.
We occasionally get alerts, if only for them to say that a tsunami is not expected. They have our phone number and can presumably call us as well if a significant tsunami is forecast to hit us. They are all about disseminating the information. I find it hard to believe that any relevant agency that wants the data cannot get it.
However, and this may have been an issue in Indonesia, what the local agency does with that data is out of the hands of the PTWC. You need a plan as to how that information will be distributed locally.
Since 2013 Australia, India, and Indonesia have taken over monitoring of the Indian Ocean basis. Similar setup.
http://www.wonderingsound.com/spotlight/the-secret-society-of-yonlu-2/ Here is a link for the story I mentioned.
Interesting stuff.