Calling 911 Effectively

The local TV has been airing recordings of recent 911 calls made during the recent Montecito floods. Many are garbled, vague, and not helpful at all. People were obviously panicked, not surprising with a houseful of mud and slime...

So what constitutes an effective, helpful 911 call?

https://www.wikihow.com/Call-911

The guidelines presented seem pretty clear. Comments and additions? Beforeyou dial, pause,take a deep breath, and get your act together.

Good article. With most phones, nowadays, being mobile, it’s critical that the first thing you tell the 911 operator is your location. If the only thing they hear is you telling them slowly and clearly where you are, help can be sent.

I would start off with ONE SENTENCE that describes exactly what you need. You can add details later.

E.g., "I need an ambulance for a gunshot victim at 123 Main street in Anytown, Colorado"

"I need police assistance for a home invasion at (location)." Always give your complete location, including city/state (no need for zipcode though, they're not going to be responding via US mail).

That way, if you get cut off or start babbling or fall apart later, the dispatcher can play back the start of the recording (your calls are always recorded) and get things rolling. Hopefully you can get your head together enough when calling 911 to come up with one short, clear initial sentence that you're going to say.

Next up, I would give a callback phone number. They may already have this, they may not, but it's important so go ahead and state it specifically to cover the bases.

Later in the call you can give your name, the extent of any injuries, in a fire scenario if everybody has gotten out of the house, identifying/navigation info about your house - paint color, what type of cars are parked out front, etc.

It may be a good Idea to make and carry a checklist for the call (in Germany there is one in FAKs for vehicles). That allows to get your head together, collect the required information and most importantly calm down a bit.
In first aid courses we tell the people to let the dispatcher take the lead. That makes the call more organized and probably faster.

We in Finland have a 112 (our emergency phone number) mobile phone app that automatically gives your position to the dispatcher.
That works only if you have GPS switched on and working data connection.

http://digia.com/en/actual/news/2015/112...ons-in-finland/

Your emphasis on clear location reminds me of an incident in Channel Islands Nat'l Park some years ago where a hiker, caught in a storm, called 911 for help. He contacted a Highway Patrol dispatcher who had no clue about the island and thought the locality was the city of Santa Cruz, CA which is a few hundred miles distant.

Eventually things got squared away and a park boat was dispatched to the island on a dark and stormy night. A wet and bedraggled rescue party eventually reached the hiker, who had found a nice snug rock shelter and built a fire. He was in much better shape than his "rescuers."

I think that was the first ever 911 call from the park islands...

There are a lot of things about 9-1-1 calls that are easy to discuss in an internet forum and a whole ‘nuther animal if you are in a situation or even a mere observer. I’ve never had to call 9-1-1 and I’d really like to hear from a 9-1-1 operator/dispatcher. Guys like me who have never had to make the call let alone receive one should be the last to give such advise.

That said, it’s probably good to have an automatic preamble so the 9-1-1 operator will know to whom she’s speaking and a relevant location — Name, phone number, location — and then get into why you’re calling. The preamble would be easy because name and phone number should roll right out, and location shouldn’t take too much thought (if you are on an island, be sure to say “ISLAND” so there’s no confusion).

As for why you’re calling, if you are personally involved, it may be difficult to stay calm and speak so you are clear and easily understood, which is why I like the preamble — it gets you speaking relevant stuff you don’t really need to think about, before you get into discussing the situation.

IMO it’s best to be calm, clear and methodical than to speak loudly and in a hurry. Speaking fast will not make the response quicker; being easily understood will possibly make the response quicker and more appropriate. Easier said...

Heartily agree that it would be great to hear from an actual 911 operator about specifics..

I just finished making a non-emergency call to my local PD (about a vehicle parked illegally) and I made sure that I had the license plate and description of the vehicle written down. In my first statement I gave my name and address -location is everything! I was surprised that I was asked for my telephone number - surely that was displayed on the other end. Maybe a double check?

It is certainly harder when you are stressed and more so if you aren't certain of your location, and for that matter, what is the best format in which to give your coordinates, assuming you have them?

I was not a 911 dispatcher, but worked with them closely as a paramedic on an ambulance. It might be instructional to learn what came out to us over a dispatch:

"Respond to unknown medical at (location)"

"Respond to a multi-vehicle accident at (location)"

"Respond to a man complaining of chest pain at (location)"

"Respond to breathing problems at (location)"

"Respond to a female with stomach pains at (location)"

Occasionally we'd get an update with additional detail, but that was rare. e.g., for the "stomach pains", we might get an update "the party may be in labor". For the "chest pains", we might get an update "there may be a Bowie knife sticking out of the chest". More often than not, we really found out what was going on when we arrived, not from detailed information included in the 911 call.

So all those extra details you think are needed in an incoming 911 call? Not so much. True, some things are important for the dispatcher and not the responders - like your callback number. That was filtered out before dispatch.

My point is, to get responders rolling, all's we hear is an abrupt and short one sentence synopsis of your 911 call. What gets dispatched to us is probably what would be your best opening line on your 911 call. Short and sweet. Location is the most important.

If the dispatchers can't figure out what you're in need of, you'll get police, and ambulance, and fire. In many cases you'll get all three of those anyway, except for obvious police-only dispatches. The police show up to every call (at least where I worked). Fire and ambulance show up to all medical and trauma calls. Ambulance shows up to all large fire calls. If it sounds like a bad police call, fire and ambulance show up too, but are staged back a block or so to be out of the kill zone/line of fire.

Don't forget the rest of the world doesn't use 911 to call for an emergency service. Look up the local one and write it on a label on your phone before you travel.
qjs

Here in the UK, the number to call in case of emergency is 999.
Also contrary to USA practice, they DO ask for your post code, which is pretty much the same as the zip code.

In case of an emergency at home, almost everyone knows their post code, however in case of say a traffic accident the person calling for help wont have a postcode for the accident site and this can cause delay.

The 999 call is answered by an operator who will enquire as to what service is required, the options throughout the UK being fire, police or ambulance.
In some parts of the UK other options are available in addition, such as the coastguard or mountain rescue.

A slight drawback of the UK system is that emergency calls are automatically routed to the emergency service in the geographical area from which the call is received.
If dialling from London and asking for "police" the call will be routed to the metropolitan police.
This can cause delay if assistance is needed in another area. For example a somewhat confused elderly person telephoned me about a gas leak.
I rang 999 for the fire brigade, but it took a bit of explaining as to why I was requesting that the fire brigade attended an address hundreds of miles away. Valuable time was thus lost, such incidents are however rare and generally the system works well.

Here's some advice applicable for calling from cell phones...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XPZv_8dABfU

112 for emergencies works in a lot of countries...

Wikipedia's 112 Emergency telephone number page

Can anyone verify that the advice works in the U.S.? Particularly the part about the dialing 911 (here, rather than the 112 featured) actually activates a "hunt" if the phone isn't set to roam... or that the cellular call to 911 will gain priority on a busy network? I just haven't heard of any of that here in the U.S.

Every carrier is required by law in the US to pass 911 calls. I have personally had it work for me when my phone had no signal, but I was in another carrier's coverage zone. Remember that your phone has to have the same kind of radio (e.g. GSM) that the carrier uses on their towers.

Thanks Chaos.

I take partial exception to #5 in the original poster's link - "Follow the dispatcher’s instructions."

Usually this is good advice, however a 911 operator is ordinarily not a police officer and you have no duty to follow his instruction if, in your opinion, it would place you in danger. This was the case in a story I read -

https://www.denverpost.com/2012/04/02/de...-official-says/

- of a motorist who reported a case of road rage. He was directed by the Denver 911 operator to return to the scene of the incident where he was promptly shot dead.