How To Stop The 911 Abuse

By Juliette Cruz


911 is earmarked for emergencies and really shouldn't be taken advantage of for use with problems which may be handled in other ways. When there are calls being made to 911 that are not true emergencies this is deemed 911 abuse and can cause the entire system to become flawed.

Fire, police and medical are dispatched from your typical emergency 911 contact. When there is a call to contact emergency personnel the dispatcher request the caller give them information as a way to determine their needs and what services they can supply. If the dispatcher deems it to not be a true emergency, the dispatcher nevertheless must send the emergency vehicles to deliver services, but they may not be the primary priority.

When services are being used in a non-emergent situation they are being taken away from another call that could be life threatening. This is why "prank calls" and horseplay fire alarm pulling is such a problem.

A dispatcher doesn't have any way of knowing what is going on when a fire alarm has been pulled. If kids pulled the prank they're not on the scene and have no knowledge that it was a prank. Then they have fire department trucks running after false alarms wasting time and resources. Then what is going to happen if someone is experiencing a real emergency at that time? It will take longer before there will be anyone to help in the real emergency.

These are things that can be avoided if 911 is used only in cases of true emergencies. Any time 911 is called for a non-emergency it takes away the resources that are needed to save lives. People can die and property lost in the time it takes to re-route another emergency vehicle.

There is also the issue of the expense it creates when a false alarm is created. It can cost upwards of $400.00 whenever a firetruck goes out on a false alarm. Even if a child does this as a joke, they're parents can be held responsible for the cost. Which makes for an expensive joke.

When there is a true health emergency such as severe injury or illness, an ambulance should be called. If the patient can be driven to the hospital safely then 911 is not necessary and should not be called. If there is a legal issue that is not life threatening or the situation does not need to be handled immediately, a non-emergency number should be called so the police can arrive when they have the spare patrolmen to deal with it. Of course any time you are dealing with a fire that is out of control it is necessary to call for fire and rescue.

It can be detrimental to lives and cost a lot of money when 911 abuse exists. Using 911 smartly is imperative. Police and other rescue vehicles need to be around when there is an authentic crisis. You need to teach children when and how to utilize 911. Let them know exactly what will happen if they make a false alarm. The only way to be sure you have an emergency vehicle when you need it is to help cut down on unnecessary 911 calls. Keeping the emergency personnel were they are needed will save lives and money.




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