"I guess HAM's or CBer's and other radio folks have had to deal with jerks like this forever, too."

I don't know about the new HAMs, but the old ones were said not to put up with it. Some of the guys in each group had other electronic equipment, like for triangulating in on bozos like this. Three HAMs would get in their cars and pinpoint where the offender was and, depending on their natures, would either 'physically encourage' him to cease and desist, and/or they would wreck his radio.

Too bad, so sad.

Sue

Right, I've heard/read anecdotal stories like that, too. Just meant that radio folks have had to deal with such selfishness and stupidity in hogging up a shared resource for more years than the newer 911-system folks have.

My wife was once a cellular 911 dispatcher, in a center that received over 40,000 911 calls a month, with never more than three or four dispatchers to handle them, along with landline calls. A bit overpowering...

Ham radio do have a way to deal with abuse. I was part of the local LIC “Local Interference Committee” for several years. We used radio direction finding, transmitter fingerprinting and a few other things to hunt down people that abused the radio frequencies of amateur radio and police & fire frequencies. We would use base station beam antennas to get a rough idea of locations and then 3 or 4 of us would go out and park in the areas at the times the interference was normally going on (stupid people would usually do it roughly the same time every day) with Yagie (sp?), quads or doper antennas mounted on our cars and hunt down & document what we found. We would listen on the frequency the interference was happened and talk to each other on 220 MHz as most scanners don’t receive 220 and even if they did, it’s a very low use band, so no one was listening to us. We had copies of the databases of info on our laptops from the 9/11 building computers. It allowed us access to some interesting info that we probably really should not have had. But it allowed us to cross check things and get to the problem faster. When we would call the police dispatchers, higher up officials or other agencies, they seemed surprised we had the phone number to get a hold of them, sometimes asking how we got the number as it was very private.

It was like being a computer hacker & hunter at the same time. It was kinda fun to do; lots of serious things were happening, but still fun and rewarding knowing you are stopping a guy that is interfering with the police or fire departments.

911 shouldn't be used to report accidents where there are obviously no injuries. 911 is a life emergency system.

I remember responding to a 911 hang-up. When I arrived, the resident told me that the emergency was that she was unable to sleep because the neighbor's dog was barking. I explained that that was not an emergency. Her response was, "It was to me".

Because people are unwilling to look up non-emergency numbers or contact Information Services (411), real emergencies become delayed. If you ever have to dial 911 for an emergency and find yourself on hold, remember that you may be queued up behind a barking dog call.

Traffic accidents on interstates at highway speeds (55+) should always be reported. The forces involved are just too high. Also the danger to other drivers is high also.

What is interesting to see after the number of times I've called 911 is to see how dispatchers take the control away from me. I know what to say, how to say it, and what information is important, but some of them just won't let me talk!

"Connecticut State Police What is your emergency?"

"I-95 Northbound from Exit 9. Vehicle nearly hit the center divider. Still failing to maintain his lane. His speed has dropped to 35 (normal is 70+ at night). Vehicle description is as follows: blah blah. New York tag. Vehicle now in the right lane approaching exit 10."

"Thank you. (click)"

"She hung up on me!"

Part of the problem might be A) you didn't identify why this was important info, or B) didn't ID yourself.

2 ways I get around the 911 problem: "This is MDINANA, I'm an off-duty EMT..." which ususally works well when it comes to patching me through to the correct department quickly. Additionally, I've been known to just call 411 and ask for the dispatch center for the local agency- they don't ask nearly as many questions. Like others have said, the 7-digit number is often less busy than 911.

hung up because she all the info she needed???..

Well after tour 3 one night I'm going home around 1 am and see a van plowed into park cars. Guy goes thru the windshield and lands on the pavement. Few of his buddies from nearby house who were hanging out on the porch run up, scoop the guy of the pavement and leave the car in the middle of the block. I call 911 and tell them that off duty paramedic witnesed the accident, giving them plate number, house number and extend of damage/possible injuries. I leave, go home, go to sleep. About 3 am I get a phone call from dispatcher: Hi this is CRO so and so and I have a unit on scene and there is nothing there. Well if it takes you 2 hrs to respond than what do you expect.

Above is almost an accident. No confirmed injuries. Just reckless driving. It could be a drunk, it could be someone dropping burger on his lap or a ciggarete butt or somebody not feeling well. Chances of state trooper catching it are slim and benefits of catching a wreckless driver are far less important than danger trooper gets put in going lights and sirens to the location which is not even steady since car keeps moving. Calls like that are so common most of the time they don't even make it on the air. It may be insensitve but that's the way it is.