[WhiteTiger]

Originally Posted by Locke

I'd love to know the research on that. Personally I thought having the Non-Emergency number plastered on Police cars was brilliant.

So did I. I don't have any access to the research, just the word of someone who was on the committee for the re-design. Though, my own experience shows true with this. Every time someone calls 911 for a non-emergency matter, they are supposed to be educated on and given the non-emergency number, and told to call back using it. The answers I've had to explaining that to people are pretty eye opening. Most just don't think of it. As I've said, "911" has become "the way to contact police" in public consciousness, so many don't even stop to think that there is a way to contact police if you have a non-emergency question. That I find is the bigger problem. Because if someone stops for a minute and says to themselves "There has to be a way to call police that isn't just 911" and googles that...the way to contact their local PD will almost always show up as the top hit, and be presented even on the google page. They don't even have to click anything, just read the number off the google page. But folks have stopped thinking of 911 as an 'emergency number' and are transitioning (unfortunately) to 'contact an emergency service number'.

Police, Fire, Medical Non-Emergency options is contact and use information we should be striving to promote in any and all manners possible. I know I've used the non-emergency line frequently.

I fully agree. Police aren't the only dept that have trouble with folks calling 911 for non-emerg services as well. Fire and EMS see a lot of it, too. Though their non-emerg numbers are even harder to find. Did you know that the Calgary Fire Dept has a non-emerg number? Try and find it. It's nearly impossible. I can only remember the last four digits of it (1022). I did some googling, looks like these days they tell you to call 311 for non-emergency fire calls.

I am in full agreement that there needs to be a lot more promotion around non-emergency contact numbers for emergency services of all types. That would free up a lot of 911 resources. Some places are doing music/youtube videos about it, and some are really good. I always get a chuckle out of this New Zealand one.

Is there a way to patch calls from 911 to the Non-Emergency lines? So that people can be directed immediately to more appropriate resources?

Technically, yes. But we're not allowed to. Sadly, in addition to folks calling on 911 for non-emerg matters, we've also been told by our higher ups/stakeholders that if someone calls 911 for any matter, that matter will be dealt with then and there.

This has led to folks realizing this and using 911 to jump the queue in non-emerg. I've flat out had people tell me "Well, I waited 5 minutes on hold with non-emergency, and didn't feel like waiting anymore, so I just called 911 to get through faster." It's...honestly...infuriating. And policy won't let me hang up on them but actually forces me to reward their ****y behavior with service. That doesn't change the priority of the call I put in, but it can mean I'm dealing with someone's 5 day old non-emergency issue instead of someone bleeding out on the street.

I'm all for frequent promotion of the local non-emerg line.