Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!uwm.edu!rutgers!texbell!vector!telecom-gateway From: rune.johansen%odin.re.nta.uninett@nac.no (Rune Henning Johansen) Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom Subject: Re: Caller ID Saves A Life! Message-ID: Date: 20 Oct 89 15:11:00 GMT Sender: news@vector.Dallas.TX.US Lines: 18 Approved: telecom-request@vector.dallas.tx.us X-Submissions-To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu X-Administrivia-To: telecom-request@vector.dallas.tx.us X-TELECOM-Digest: volume 9, issue 466, message 8 of 11 I'm quite sure that the fire department in Oslo uses "caller ID" for emergency calls. In addition to the obvious safety-reason already mentioned, there is another advantage: They can also avoid and/or detect false alerts. [Moderator's Note: When 911 was implemented here over ten years ago, the false-alarm rate (at least the malicious ones) dropped to almost zero. For many years, the Chicago Fire and Police Departments were plagued with malicious false-alarms. Typically the Fire Department responded to over two dozen false (or do you say phalse? [smiling sweetly :-)] ) alarms *daily*. Police responded to many more, some of which were simply malicious attempts to lure a police officer into a dangerous situation. As some people began finding out the hard way that there were no more games with the phone, these ugly activities virtually ceased. We still get a tiny number of false-alarms, mostly from people unaware of how it works; usually children playing. PT]