Ok. I've been seeing some things on Facebook again, and I've been pondering about addressing them, but I generally dislike posting in public on Facebook, so I thought I'd share some thoughts here on some 911 things that folks may not know about.
Landline vs Cell.
The only real advantage a landline has over a cell is that 911 knows without a doubt where that phone is supposed to be. Its location is registered with the phone company, so it should be where it says. When 911 gets a call from a landline that no one is talking on, we have a pretty good idea of where to start looking. Cell phones can be registered to anyone, anywhere. I know this, because I once had Darth Vader from Endor call up.
Pinging
Unlike on TV, pings can either be amazing, or utterly useless. I've had a cell phone return a ping of 2 meters, which is fantastic. I've also had a cell return a ping of 2000 meters...which is not so helpful. The most common ping return is about 100 meters. Cst Chris Martin did a nice Facebook note about how unreliable pings are, and how they are difficult to find. He used the most common ping radius, 100m, to illustrate this. Want to know what is almost a perfect 100 meter radius circle? The Saddledome. Imagine if you call us from anywhere in the Saddledome (keeping in mind that pings also don't indicate height) but can't say where you are, how long it'd take 2-6 officers to search the 'Dome to find you. Pings can be handy, but it's not like on TV, where they are able to pinpoint which room of which apartment on which floor of what building you are in.
Can't Talk
You've called 911, but for some reason, you can't talk. The reason why doesn't matter, but you can't. Calling 911 is still a good thing to do. We have a variety of things we can try to do to locate you, and what we can hear in the background really helps, too. Does it sound like you are inside or outside? By yourself? With people? Do they sound happy or angry? Is there yelling? I know of at least one phone call 911 has gotten where a life has been saved because someone dialed 911 and the phone was left off the line. It turned out that the person who called was choking and unable to speak. All that could be heard was very frantic, labored breathing attempts. But the person was able to call, and help arrived in time.
Can Talk, Can't Say What's Going On
It's a sort of myth that's reached epic proportions by now. You've likely heard of it. The "Pizza Call". Its been around for quite some time, but no one's sure how or when it actually started. Now there is actually a single recorded instance of a 'pizza call' happening for real. That's what prompted this post, honestly.
In essence, 911 is called, but the person calling can't just say "I've got someone in my house who's beaten me bloody and I need them removed. Come get 'em." for whatever reason. Generally, the person having 911 called on them is still within earshot and will react poorly and likely even more violently to having 911 called. So what is a person to do?
"Order a pizza!". Yes-ish. The concept behind the call is solid, but what you are looking for is something that gives us a yes/no question/answer situation. This can take many forms. Ordering food is a good one, because there can be a lot of yes/no questions in there. The problem I've seen with folks claiming that there is a 'pizza call' that '911 operators are trained on' often implies that there is some kind of national standard, a menu if you will. A large pepperoni means domestic trouble, with mushrooms means a gun, without sauce means EMS is needed due to bleeding, that sort of thing.
There is no national menu. 911 operators are not (or SHOULD not be) trained on that. What we are trained on is critical thinking, and how to recognize situations that are off. We are trained to go to yes/no questions if possible. That is what we are trained on, what what makes more sense for us to be trained on, instead of rote-memorizing some menu.
The reasons behind this are many, but I usually tell folks that the point of the call is to get help without arousing suspicion. I, for instance, hate mushrooms, so if I needed to make one of these 911 calls, and all the sudden I'm ordering mushrooms to indicate that there's a gun...someone is likely to get suspicious if they know me at all. Also, with something like that, what is to prevent the bad guys from learning and memorizing it, too. The situations are also often too dynamic, and in them, folks have trouble remembering easy stuff, like their phone number or address (yes, really), so asking them to recall a specific menu is asking a bit much.
Also, try to pick something that your 911 operator can work with. If you tell the person that you are calling your sister, say...and a male 911 operator answers...well, it gets awkward if that person grabs the phone out of your hand and hears a male talking. The operator might be able to make it work with something like "I'm the sister's husband"...but that starts supposing on information the 911 operator just doesn't have, which can blow the whole gig wide open.
So keep it basic. Keep it to something where the 911 operator can ply you with yes/no questions. When I answered a call along this nature, I ended up being a 'taxi dispatcher'. 911 operators are usually good and catch on quick.
Also, asking us "How long will delivery take" isn't code for us to tell you how close the nearest unit is to you. We can't reveal that information. We'll never (or should never) tell you how close or far away the unit is, just that "it'll be there as soon as possible." as we can't know how long it'll take a unit to get there.
This is also another situation where, if you are forced to get off the phone, you might try to leave the line open so that the 911 operator can hear what's going on.
Anyhow, that's what's been on my mind tonight after checking out some Facebook stuff. If you have questions, you can always ask here or via PM