Print 6 comment(s) - last by HurleyBird.. on Dec 9 at 11:01 PM






Source: FCC

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RE: Unneeded complexity?
By LSUJester on 12/7/2012 3:07:53 PM , Rating: 5

Have you ever actually been a 911 operator? If not, you have no idea what it's like.

While it is not difficult to discern what is and is not an emergency, what is often difficult is getting proper information from the people that call. Many people who call our center refuse to tell you anything. If you ask them for a suspect description, all they will respond with it, "Just hurry up and get here!" And then the police drive by the suspect because they don't know who they are looking for.

Also, some people assume that you know exactly where they are, when in reality some cellphones (especially the local cheapos) refuse to get a good GPS location. That or instead of a street name / address, they tell you "Mike's Bar" and then you get the added time of trying to look that up. And getting the telcos involved to track a phone is not a quick process.

While this technology does have an upside with possible pictures of the scene, the lack of a constant connection to the victim presents problems. For example, on the phone 911 operators can hear an incident in the background and can discern a good bit just from that. I personally listened to a man hold a woman hostage. She called, whispered the address, then left the phone lying on the ground. With texts, that could never happen.

