911 is here to help but we need you to do your part

We all know about 911.  It's the number you dial for emergencies.  By dialing this number you can request a response for police, fire or ambulance.  The idea behind it is to reduce time of response which is critical in an emergency.  However in practice it does not always work that way.  Often due to panic or misunderstanding.  Since I was a police/fire dispatcher for twelve years I though I'd share some ways to help make it work the way it supposed to.

Only dial 911 for emergencies
You should only dial 911 during an actual emergency.  Understand that there are guidelines as to what constitutes an emergency.  First of all emergencies are things that are handled by emergency services.  Police fire and ambulance  only!  If it falls in that  category then it must be an immediate threat to life, safety or  property.  Someone breaks into your house and they are long gone is not an emergency, however burglars  in your house are.   A scraped knee is not an emergency , broken bones, heart attacks, excessive bleeding are emergencies If you have a fire in a trash can that you can put out using a fire extinguisher is not an emergency, your home or vehicle on fire is.

Calm down and speak clearly
The tendency is to panic and we understand that but if you are rattling things off at a fast pace, we often cannot understand you.  This is why a dispatcher will keep asking you to repeat yourself, they are not being funny but we need clear concise information to get the appropriate agency to you.

Have good directions
With call centers being centralized in many cases we are dealing with duplicate addresses in the system.  Be sure that you give good directions including the city and any major landmarks.

Have complete information or don't call
This sounds harsh, but if you can't tell us what is happening or give us good directions you are wasting our time.  More importantly you are tying up a line on which someone with the information could be calling in.

I can't tell you how important the last guideline is.  I dealt with a fire call in which both 911 and the administrative lines were ringing off the hook.  This was a large fire with flames shooting up into the air and visible for miles.  There was a lot of waterfront property and many docks in the city.  Several people called and said "Something is burning"  They did not know where or what, the information was of absolutely no use.  Others called in and said "The dock is on fire"  Which dock?  Again useless information,  After five minutes of wading through well-meaning but time wasting people calling in, I finally had someone tell me it was a marina and the closest intersection.  I was then able to dispatch the fire department to the fire.  The person who gave me the correct information had been trying to dial in for five minutes.  All of the other time wasters had prevented him from doing so.

If you are concerned about a situation but your don't have the correct information don't dial 911, dial the administrative line.  In this way you don't prevent someone else with the information from getting through.  If you do not get an answer on the administrative line it's probably because the people in the call center are handling it.  Just try back in a minute or two.
Remember that 911 is a dedicated line and there are only so many trunk lines available for incoming calls.  If you can't give us everything we need to handle the situation someone else can, leave the 911 line open for them.

If you have all of the information then by all means call so that we can respond efficiently to the emergency.