Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!sdd.hp.com!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!wuarchive!decwrl!hayes.fai.alaska.edu!accuvax.nwu.edu!nucsrl!telecom-request
From: optilink!cramer@uunet.uu.net (Clayton Cramer)
Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom
Subject: Re: E911 Experience
Message-ID: <9854@accuvax.nwu.edu>
Date: 19 Jul 90 00:31:06 GMT
Sender: news@accuvax.nwu.edu
Organization: Optilink Corporation, Petaluma, CA
Lines: 39
Approved: Telecom@eecs.nwu.edu
X-Submissions-To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu
X-Administrivia-To: telecom-request@eecs.nwu.edu
X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 10, Issue 494, Message 8 of 10


In article <9805@accuvax.nwu.edu>, tep@tots.logicon.com (Tom Perrine)
writes:
 
> With all of the negative 911 experiences being described, I thought I
> would mention that, at least here in a backwater :-) of Pac Bell land
> (Poway, near San Diego), 911 works!

Well, I have two experiences with 911 service from Pac Bell.  In both
cases, 911 did their job, but the results varied greatly.

In the first case, a man with a bat was threatening a kid in front on
my apartment building in Santa Monica, CA.  (The guy with the bat
turned out to be the good guy).  From the time I dialed 911 to the
time three police cars showed up was three minutes, fifteen seconds.
I didn't have to provide any address or name information -- I just
reported it, and went back outside to be a witness or to intervene if
necessary.

The other case involved a drunk dragging a woman, kicking and
screaming out of her apartment, down the stairs in Costa Mesa, CA.  I
called, described the incident, but for reasons that remain unclear to
me, they spent quite a bit of time asking for a detailed description
of the EXACT location where this was happening (perhaps to distinguish
it from any similar events in that block :-)).  In this case, 911 did
their job, but this being a Saturday night in Costa Mesa, it took
Costa Mesa PD 45 minutes to show up, during which time I found myself
holding a gun, trying to decide at what point to intervene in the
situation.  (This was a considerably less pleasant experience than it
sounds -- and it sounds pretty unpleasant).  By the time the police
arrived, this guy was long gone.

I don't know about the rest of you, but 911 works just fine -- now if
they could just improve response time of the PDs to the point where
they can do something besides draw chalk marks around the bodies...


Clayton E. Cramer {pyramid,pixar,tekbspa}!optilink!cramer
Disclaimer?  You must be kidding!  No company would hold opinions like mine!