"311" as a non-emergency number
More comments by Smarty Jones (internal link)
Many cities now use "311" as a non-emergency number. Our resident dispatcher Smarty Jones says this service can be badly implemented, endangering lives. In his area lower paid and less professional people will now answer, during the day, what bureaucrats think are less needy calls. In reality the truth is something else:
"Bluntly, this is stupid. My experiences and of the people who have been in our County 911 Comm since it began over 20 years ago is this: we answer both emergency and non-emergency calls and should keep doing so. Yes it's true as the article says, that we get about 45% non-emergency calls on 911. What they fail to mention is that ON THE NON-EMERGENCY LINES, we get about 45% ACTUAL emergencies. It all depends on the knowledge and nature of the caller. So what's going to happen to these 311 operators (who are lower paid operators and not Public Safety Telecommunicators and less trained) when they get these 45% real emergencies? Delay the call and transfer it to 911? The public is going to be more confused than it already is. I won't even mention how many calls we get for 411 (DA), 511 (road and traffic) and 611 (telephone company general number) on 911."