# Why can't we use 911 for police? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [March 18, 2012, 7:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-cant-we-use-911-for-police/616153 "2012-03-18T19:18:42Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![shijinn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/cc9497/32.png) [@shijinn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/shijinn)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2012, 4:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-cant-we-use-911-for-police/616153/21 "2012-03-19T04:25:59Z")
in Singapore, the advertised emergency number is 999 or 995 for medical, but 911 or 112 will work regardless. ---
**Author:** ![Lord\_Feldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lord_feldon/32/341_2.png) [@Lord\_Feldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lord_Feldon)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2012, 4:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-cant-we-use-911-for-police/616153/22 "2012-03-19T04:27:43Z")
> [@Mr\_Downtown](#): > > I’m sure it’s something specific to your location. For instance, there may be a countywide dispatch for fire and ambulance, but police calls depend on what municipality you live in. You may be in a small exclave of county sheriff jurisdiction surrounded by a large city, or some other unusual situation. Then the agency that receives 911 calls should be able to forward calls to the appropriate law enforcement agency (that’s how it works in my county). Telling people to hang up and call someone who cares isn’t really the best way of resolving that situation. (I don’t doubt that it happens, though.) ---
**Author:** ![Martin\_Hyde](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/47e85d/32.png) [@Martin\_Hyde](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Martin_Hyde)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2012, 4:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-cant-we-use-911-for-police/616153/23 "2012-03-19T04:34:19Z")
> [@Napier](#): > > Well, if you call almost 800 people small… Who doesn’t? I grew up in a town of less than 5,000 and we all would consider a town of 800 small. ---
**Author:** ![benbo1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e19adc/32.png) [@benbo1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/benbo1)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2012, 11:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-cant-we-use-911-for-police/616153/24 "2012-03-19T11:52:23Z")
> [@thelurkinghorror](#): > > In some places, you are supposed to use [3-1-1](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3-1-1) for non-emergencies. Things like a traffic light is out, suspicious behavior, etc. But I agree that the OP was an immediate emergency. > > Non-GQ: > But that whole alternate number thing is asinine. It reminds me of the Simspons line, where Homer starts a security agency to compete with the cops: In N.Y. & L.A., 911 will get u Fire, EMS, and the cops. Altho, I tried calling a couple of times (reporting car accidents), and 1 time _got a busy signal for 5 minutes_, & 1 time no one picked up!!!). Re: the Simpsons, in another episode, Homer has to call for some emergency. He dials the operator, & asks, ‘Operator! What’s the number for 911’? ---
**Author:** ![Sparky812](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/eb9ed0/32.png) [@Sparky812](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sparky812)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2012, 12:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-cant-we-use-911-for-police/616153/25 "2012-03-19T12:22:05Z")
> [@Napier](#): > > Well, if you call almost 800 people small… Is this a whoosh? I live in a relatively small city and my kid’s school has more than 800 students! ---
**Author:** ![enipla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/54ee81/32.png) [@enipla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/enipla)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2012, 1:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-cant-we-use-911-for-police/616153/26 "2012-03-19T13:05:05Z")
> [@Mr\_Downtown](#): > > I’m sure it’s something specific to your location. For instance, there may be a countywide dispatch for fire and ambulance, but police calls depend on what municipality you live in. You may be in a small exclave of county sheriff jurisdiction surrounded by a large city, or some other unusual situation. I live in a county that has small towns with seperate police departments and a sheriffs dept. We also have different fire departments. Dispatch does them all. ---
**Author:** ![WhyNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c77e96/32.png) [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2012, 1:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-cant-we-use-911-for-police/616153/27 "2012-03-19T13:38:39Z")
> [@Napier](#): > > Well, if you call almost 800 people small… So, yes, then. (I live in Chicago. There are probably 800 people living on my _block_.) Local politics is almost always the answer to Small Town WTFs. The sheriff dated the daughter of the guy who runs the dispatch company and knocked her up. The dispatcher’s grandmother won the blue ribbon for her apple pie when the police chief’s great aunt’s second cousin’s blueberry was clearly superior in 1963. Something like that, I’m sure. The only way to find out for sure is to head over to the barbershop on a warm June day and listen to the old coots’ stories on the front stoop. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2012, 1:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-cant-we-use-911-for-police/616153/28 "2012-03-19T13:49:09Z")
> [@tumbleddown](#): > > If a violent felony assault isn’t an emergency, I’m not sure what is. Battery, not assault (though it would probably also involve an assault). ---
**Author:** ![Mr\_Downtown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Mr\_Downtown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr_Downtown)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2012, 4:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-cant-we-use-911-for-police/616153/29 "2012-03-19T16:12:27Z")
> [@enipla](#): > > I live in a county that has small towns with seperate police departments and a sheriffs dept. We also have different fire departments. Dispatch does them all. That’s marvelous. But the way things are done in _your_ county may not be the way things are done in _every_ county. I’m always astonished by Dopers’ expectations of homogeneity in a country as big as the US, or sometimes even on a worldwide basis. They will cite their town’s local ordinance as though regulations are the same everywhere, or with the curious assumption that some federal commission had laid out rules a century ago for every municipality to adopt unchanged. ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2012, 4:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-cant-we-use-911-for-police/616153/30 "2012-03-19T16:21:57Z")
Just for the hell of it. [History of 911.](http://www.911dispatch.com/911/history/) ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2012, 4:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-cant-we-use-911-for-police/616153/31 "2012-03-19T16:26:38Z")
> [@WhyNot](#): > > Local politics is almost always the answer to Small Town WTFs. Yep. I live in a rural area where two adjacent towns once had a combined police force. Problems led to the dissolution of the combined force. One town (where I live) now has a police force, the other has none. If I call 911 I get the state police, who will give me the number to the local police. They also tell me that if I do not get an answer, the state police will provide coverage. ---
**Author:** ![Napier](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ce73a5/32.png) [@Napier](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Napier)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2012, 4:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-cant-we-use-911-for-police/616153/32 "2012-03-20T16:35:39Z")
> [@Sparky812](#): > > Is this a whoosh? > > I live in a relatively small city and my kid’s school has more than 800 students! I am making light of the fact that my town is too small to have a grocery store. And I don’t even live downtown! I live between three gravel pits, halfway to the next town. ---
**Author:** ![purplehorseshoe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/purplehorseshoe/32/2996_2.png) [@purplehorseshoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/purplehorseshoe)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2012, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-cant-we-use-911-for-police/616153/33 "2012-03-20T17:24:31Z")
> [@Napier](#): > > I am making light of the fact that my town is too small to have a grocery store… How does one procure food in your neck of the woods? Do you have to grow/raise/slaughter/barter for everything yourself? Not snarky, I swear, just … puzzled, I guess. And spoiled, too. ---
**Author:** ![enipla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/54ee81/32.png) [@enipla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/enipla)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2012, 5:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-cant-we-use-911-for-police/616153/34 "2012-03-20T17:47:25Z")
> [@Mr\_Downtown](#): > > That’s marvelous. But the way things are done in _your_ county may not be the way things are done in _every_ county. > > I’m always astonished by Dopers’ expectations of homogeneity in a country as big as the US, or sometimes even on a worldwide basis. They will cite their town’s local ordinance as though regulations are the same everywhere, or with the curious assumption that some federal commission had laid out rules a century ago for every municipality to adopt unchanged. It sounded to me that you where saying that each different town has to have it’s own dispatch. They don’t. ---
**Author:** ![Catfood\_Purrito](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c6cbf5/32.png) [@Catfood\_Purrito](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Catfood_Purrito)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2012, 6:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-cant-we-use-911-for-police/616153/35 "2012-03-20T18:01:59Z")
> [@WhyNot](#): > > Local politics is almost always the answer to Small Town WTFs. The sheriff dated the daughter of the guy who runs the dispatch company and knocked her up. The dispatcher’s grandmother won the blue ribbon for her apple pie when the police chief’s great aunt’s second cousin’s blueberry was clearly superior in 1963. Something like that, I’m sure. The only way to find out for sure is to head over to the barbershop on a warm June day and listen to the old coots’ stories on the front stoop. Really? How many small towns have you lived in that led you to make such a broad and kind of condescending assertion? I’ve lived in two and worked in two others, and in my experience, local officials were just as capable of behaving like professionals as the local officials in the larger cities I’ve lived in, which is to say, some are, some aren’t, but you can’t generalize based on the size of the city they serve. In my experience, oddities like this are simply because it’s what’s been found to work best for that particular locale. Calling 911 in the city where I grew up will get you the charge nurse on duty at the nursing home, because the volume of calls doesn’t necessitate a dedicated dispatcher. ---
**Author:** ![Rhythmdvl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/85f322/32.png) [@Rhythmdvl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rhythmdvl)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2012, 6:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-cant-we-use-911-for-police/616153/36 "2012-03-20T18:09:23Z")
How do you test for something like this? We have three cell phones on two different providers, a digital phone through the cable internet and another digital phone through the DSL connection, and a landline. Do they all go to the same place? Odd that the technology would be so synchronized. And do we call up each one and ask “if this _were_ an emergency, would you be able to send the police?” I’m sure my neighbours would appreciate me tying up the emergency line with those questions. ---
**Author:** ![Sicks\_Ate](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/258eb7/32.png) [@Sicks\_Ate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sicks_Ate)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2012, 6:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-cant-we-use-911-for-police/616153/37 "2012-03-20T18:27:37Z")
> [@WhyNot](#): > > I…sometimes you get a small town police chief or department head who doesn’t want to pay for the services of the local dispatch company. Sometimes it’s truly a budgetary concern, sometimes it’s a pissing match and local politics. > [@Mr\_Downtown](#): > > I’m sure it’s something specific to your location. For instance, there may be a countywide dispatch for fire and ambulance, but police calls depend on what municipality you live in. You may be in a small exclave of county sheriff jurisdiction surrounded by a large city, or some other unusual situation. Both of these are possible. I think that the most likely answer probably has to do with the way the 911 center is funded. Many 911/Central dispatch/Emergency Operations centers are entities unto themselves; they are not under the management or command of another governmental entity. Rather, their management many times is a boards of elected or appointed officials, some of whom may be heads of agenceis serviced by the center. The center may be funded by an agreement between the serviced agencies, who contribute the funds for its operation. In this case, the police department may have chosen to retain their own dispatch. Another method of funding for 911 is through a tax levy, such as a sales tax that is passed on a ballot in the area that will be serviced. In these cases, the initiative may be very specific as to how the revenue may be spent; if the version that is passed, only specifies funds for medical and fire dispatch, then the center may not also dispatch for police. Finally, a large part of police dispatch involves accessing state- and nationwide computer databases, such as NCIC or state driver/vehicle files. Maintaining necessary networks and equipment may be prohibitively costly. Due to the prospect of additional time to train and certify employees on these systems, the center may simply choose not to burden themselves with another complete set of complications. > [@Lord\_Feldon](#): > > Then the agency that receives 911 calls should be able to forward calls to the appropriate law enforcement agency (that’s how it works in my county). Telling people to hang up and call someone who cares isn’t really the best way of resolving that situation. (I don’t doubt that it happens, though.) Agree 100% ---
**Author:** ![Napier](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ce73a5/32.png) [@Napier](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Napier)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2012, 7:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-cant-we-use-911-for-police/616153/38 "2012-03-20T19:21:59Z")
> [@purplehorseshoe](#): > > How does one procure food in your neck of the woods? Do you have to grow/raise/slaughter/barter for everything yourself? Not snarky, I swear, just … puzzled, I guess. And spoiled, too. No snark taken on this end. My house is about 2 miles from the center of my city, which has sidewalks and streetlights and a fire house and several restaurants. There are convenience stores and pizza places near me, as close as about 3/4 mile. There is another city about 3 miles away and there’s a grocery store there but not a very good one. Yet another city is about 5 miles away and has a surprisingly good grocery store. That city has a high school, a pet store, a laundry, a bar, several auto repair businesses, a bank, and even a McDonald’s. Its population is 1700. If we want to be able to go to several stores in the same trip, or want something like a bookstore or a Target or a Home Depot, we go to a town 20 miles away that has a population of 10,000. It has a very cheesy indoor shopping mall as well as a Best Buy, a Chili’s, a Bertucci’s, and such. It also has a really excellent 24 hour emergency vet that is always open and occupied (no need to call ahead). I go there pretty often with cat emergencies. We also grow vegetables, but that has more to do with inventing time consuming work than it does with survival. We order pizza delivery probably five times for every time we eat out of our garden. ---
**Author:** ![UltraVires](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ecccb3/32.png) [@UltraVires](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UltraVires)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2012, 7:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-cant-we-use-911-for-police/616153/39 "2012-03-20T19:42:35Z")
It sounds like the dispatcher is making a mistake. What 911 dispatchers do say is to not call 911 for NON-EMERGENCY police matters. You are in a fender bender with no injuries? Don’t tie up the emergency line and interfere with a life or death situation, use the regular police line. It sounds like this dispatcher didn’t understand the severity of the situation and thought it was a simple argument or something. ---
**Author:** ![Kimballkid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/b5a626/32.png) [@Kimballkid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimballkid)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2012, 8:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-cant-we-use-911-for-police/616153/40 "2012-03-20T20:47:26Z")
> [@Sicks\_Ate](#): > > Another method of funding for 911 is through a tax levy, such as a sales tax that is passed on a ballot in the area that will be serviced. Another funding method is a 911 surcharge on phone bills. And I don’t recall being able to vote on that one. 🙂 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-cant-we-use-911-for-police/616153.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-cant-we-use-911-for-police/616153.md?page=3)