Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!cs.utexas.edu!swrinde!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!sdd.hp.com!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 -- All Operators Are Busy Message-ID: <10197@accuvax.nwu.edu> Date: 27 Jul 90 20:55:45 GMT Sender: news@accuvax.nwu.edu Organization: Optilink Corporation, Petaluma, CA Lines: 35 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 523, Message 5 of 10 In article <10144@accuvax.nwu.edu>, hoptoad!kumr!pozar@uunet.uu.net (Tim Pozar) writes: > In article <10031@accuvax.nwu.edu> John Higdon > writes: > >But one interesting problem of 911 surfaced at this time. Sometimes > >the system is overloaded by multiple calls reporting the same major > >event. Even though only one call would be sufficient to summon aid > >for the incident, the PSAP has no instantaneous way of knowing that a > >cluster of calls are not for separate incidents. > Yet, we have seen discussion here that sometimes one call does not > summon help. It is only after a number of calls to 911 that any > action happens. At the same event I previously mentioned, where the 911 dispatching supervisor explained why they ask for the information, one member of the audience told of her roommate being beaten in the parking lot, and chased in doors by three young women, one of them armed with a gun. She called 911 to report what had happened, and that they were at the door, trying to get in. Eleven minutes later, she called 911 again. THIS time, they decided it was serious enough to send a police officer. Not surprisingly, this young woman's perception of 911 dispatching wasn't very high. Note that the city in question is Rohnert Park, where rapes are front page news, and years go by without a murder. I can't imagine why the dispatcher didn't consider an armed attacker at the door to be a serious enough problem to send an officer on the first report. Clayton E. Cramer {pyramid,pixar,tekbspa}!optilink!cramer Disclaimer? You must be kidding! No company would hold opinions like mine!