911 HOTLINE: A 24 HOUR EMERGENCY TELEPHONE SERVICE

Program Information Provided By:

THE UNITED P.O. BOX 7 TULSA, TELE: CONTACT: Safety Program Manager

STATES JAYCEES

OKLAHOMA

74102

(918) 584-2481

RSVP

5302-0

~ .30

911 HOTLINE A 24 HOUR EMERGENCY TELEPHONE

SERVICE

The most widely telephone.

used method

of reporting

emergencies

is the

Recognizing this, the President's Commission on Law Enforcement, the Federal Communications Commission and many members of Congress have recommended the adoption of a universal telephone number to be used by citizens nationwide for summoning help. Now, there is such a number - 911. By introducing this easy-to-remember three-digit telephone number in your community, you can enable your citizens to summon help quickly in all kinds of emergencies. The effectiveness of any system of emergency reporting is measured by response time - that is, the time interval between the discovery of an emergency by a citizen and the arrival upon the scene of appropriate forces equipped to cope with the situation. The telephone has been used for reporting emergencies for almost as long as it has been in existence. Telephone operators have special training in handling emergency calls and dialing "Operator" has brought help to many persons in trouble. It still happens every day, about 40,000 times. But emergency calls actually comprise a minor fraction of one per cent of all the calls an operator handles - approximately one out of each 300 calls. And it should be remembered that the operator has no way of knowing that an incoming call is an emergency until she is on the line. Mindful of this and of the time that can be lost by a citizen attempting to evaluate an emergency, decide which agency should be summoned, and then looking up the number, the President's Commission on Law Enforcement and other Government agencies and officials have recommended the adoption of an easily remembered universal telephone number to be used by citizens nationwide for summoning help. Developed in response to this recommendation, 911 service is by far the fastest and most effective public system yet devised for handling police, fire and medical emergencies of all kinds. Incorporation of this service in your community will be an important part of the national progress toward greater and more effective protection of the public. HOW DOES 911 WORK?

The Bell System has made the new 911 emergency number available for use by public safety agencies in all the cornmunit~es it serves. Calls to 911 are received directly at a central emergency switchboard

911 Hotline Page 2

operated and manned by trained public safety agency personnel. They get the facts of the emergency and arrange to dispatch proper forces and equipment. WHY IS 911 BETTER THAN OTHER SYSTEMS?: It's faster.

It takes less time to dial three digits than seven. It's even faster than merely dialing "0" for operator, because every 911 call goes directly to the central reporting point and is immediately recognized and handled as an emergency. It's Easier to Remember and More Convenient. a simple

People under stress are much more likely to remember three-digit number than a seven-digit number ..

Or, for that matter, which seven-digit number to call for which kind of emergency, or where they left the phone book. It's More Efficient. The built-in coordination made possible by centralized reporting provides for maximum efficiency in dispatching equipment and forces. This is particularly important when several different services may be needed to cope with one reported emergency, or when several different emergencies must be handled at once. It's Flexible. You can start off with police and fire emergency calls, and, as budgets and available resources permit, phase into other emergency calls on a convenient, gradual basis. These may be ambulance, poison-control center, rescue squads, civil defense, Coast Guard and any other services dedicated to the protection of life and property. It's An Automatic Priority System. calls. to

911 is intended

only for emergency

Routine, non-emergency and administrative calls are directed the regular telephone numbers of the appropriate agencies. Your emergency communications which moments count most. It's For Towns and Cities Your community

are kept free for those calls on

of All Sizes.

can't be too big or too small for 911 service.

911 Hotline Page 3

Kew York City is the first major this service.

city in the United

States to have and is

But it is also in operation in much smaller communities under active consideration in many others, large and small. Planning and coordination service to your community. are the key words in bringing

911

It will almost certainly involve some changes in your present communications and emergency-handling procedures, just as equipment modifications on the part of your Telephone Company will be required. However, when reasonable time allowance is made for such changes, and when the general public is kept informed, 911 service can be phased in smoothly and efficiently. JAYCEE INVOLVEMENT

Your chapter can provide the leadership in creating a 24-houra-day emergency telephone number throughout an entire region or state. After project approval, arrange for a meeting with the emergency coordinator in your community. He will be a Police Chief, Fire Chief, Civil Defense Chief or such. Determine the methods currently in use and familarize them with the Telephone Company's 911 System. Once these key community leaders are on your side, it is time to visit the telephone company business office, Public Relations, or Marketing Representatives. Other related Jaycee activities would be to promote the new service available and identify the individuals responsible. Cost for conducting administrative expense. the project will be minimal, mostly

A small committee of under to implement this project. FOR ADDITIONAL INFORMATION, 1. 2.

5 members

should be sufficient

CONTACT: company Company

Your local telephone

American Telephone and Telegraph 1000 Connecticut Avenue, N.W. Washington, D.C. 20036

911 Hotline Page 4

"911 - THE NATIONWIDE WILLIAM AMERICAN TELEPHONE

EMERGENCY

NUMBER"

E. CORBIN AND TELEGRAPH COMPANY

There has been considerable publicity concerning the telephone company's announcement of 911 as a nationwide emergency number. Some of the news media reports have been accurate and some not so accurate. Also, there has been some concern about 911 evident in public forums. To put it in its proper perspective let's divide the subject into the following sections: 1. 2. History and Development of 911.

How it is contemplated that it will work and what it will mean to the public. Costs, planning and coordination necessary to implement 911. OF 911

3.

HISTORY AND DEVELOPMENT

For several years the Bell System has been under pressure to provide an easy to remember telephone number for contacting emergency services. More recently the President's Crime Commission, members of the Congress, and the Federal Communications Commission have added their support. In addition to being an easy to remember number, it should be easy to dial in a state of panic, for the handicapped, and under darkened conditions. The 3-digit number 911 was selected from a limited resource from within the total nationwide number plan. It is felt that it meets the criteria outlined above as well as any other combination of numbers available. HOW 911 WILL WORK AND WHAT IT WILL MEAN TO THE PUBLIC The number 911 is offered to assist local public safety agents in protecting the life, safety and property of the public at the local level. It is not intended to completely substitute for existing 7-digit emergency numbers nor for dial "zero" for Operator. In order to provide on number, community wide, it is necessary to direct the calls to one answering point within the community. This requirement has caused much confusion. Many communities have drawn the conclusion that it will be necessary to establish a new super communications agency to .

911 Hotline Page 5

accommodate 911 service with dispatchers adequately trained to handle all types of emergencies. This is not true. Present personnel and facilities now dedicated to recelvlng emergency calls from 7-digit public safety numbers and dial "zero" for Operator may well be adequate. The dispatching function may or may not be physically associated with the answering point. In some towns the same individual may handle both the answering and dispatching functions. In other larger cities they may be separated to accommodate more elaborate command and control systems. The answering responsibilities may best fall with the police, fire or some interdepartmental organization. In the cities that now have one 7-digit number working city-wide, approximately 80% of the total emergency calls are for police assistance. This suggests that consideration should be given to the police handling 911 calls with the capability of rapidly transferring calls for fire or emergency medical aid to the appropriate fire or ambulance services. In the final analysis the communities existing facilities (buildings, communications and dispatching hardware and personnel) will probably indicate the best and most economical solution to the question of where should the 911 calls be received. The question becomes somewhat academic considering the existing state of the art in answering equipments and back-up communications that can enable a complaint clerk or dispatcher to transfer calls to any location in the community. To meet the objective of assisting public safety in protecting the life, safety and property of the public at the local level, the minimum agency participation in 911 should be the police and fire services. "Participating agencies" can be defined as those agencies that the public understands will give fast assistance as a result of a call to 911. Although the police and fire services should be the minimum number of participating agencies, it is hoped that the communities will also include the emergency medical services, too. When the ambulances are dispatched by either police or fire departments, no problems seem apparent. If the ambulance services are private business 911 calls can be handled either on a referral of the calling party to the appropriate ambulance company's 7-digit number, or by directly notifying the appropriate ambulance company from a list indexed by areas of the city and a rotation call sequence, if there are more than one in a particular area. Additional emergency services may be added to the "direct participation" category at the discretion of the community, i.e., Coast Guard, Poison Control Centers, FBI, etc. Regardless of how well educated the public is in the use of 911, it is contemplated that the answering agency will receive a sprinkling of misdirected calls and should be administratively equipped to handle many different categories of calls either on a referral or direct transfer basis, similar to present arrangement.

911 Hotline Page 6

COST, PLANNING

AND COORDINATION

Before tackling the all important planning considerations, let's look at the costs. The costs of central office (switching center) and inter-office trunking (trunking between central offices) modifications necessary to provide 911 service to a community will be telephone company costs. The 911 trunks from the serving central office to the answering point, associated answering equipments and communications for coordination behind the answering point will be charged for at regular tariff rates. The charges to public safety agencies will be for like services and equipments now being provided to handle emergency calls. This brings up another concern that is frequently heard-"911 service will place a cost burden on public safety agencies." I think this is a premature assumption. Many communities are already equipped to expertly handle emergency calls from the public. The advent of 911 should not noticeably increase the volume of calls now coming in over 7-digit emergency numbers and from dial "zero" for Operator. Looking at the total community budgets it may be possible to save dollars by consolidating the answering functions. This has been the trend in industries that handle a large volume of calls from the general public, i.e., department stores, airlines and utility companies. Coupled with the trend toward centralization in the larger cities to accommodate more elaborate command and control systems, it is going to be difficult to precisely evaluate the cost effect of 911. Also, any cost must be ultimately measured against the service to the public. Under the subject of planning for 911, the first question that always comes up is the jurisdictional-telephone central office boundary inconsistencies. These inconsistencies will arise when a central office switching boundary overlays two or more jurisdictions. These situations will probably develop in two stages. The first stage is when one community or jurisdiction has 911 service and it's neighboring jurisdiction does not. The second stage is when both jurisdictions have 911 service. Let's investigate what planning and coordination is necessary for the two stages when a single central office area overlays a portion of both jurisdictions. In the first case, there will be an area of telephone subscribers within the jurisdiction that does not have 911 service, served by a central office programmed to direct 911 calls to the jurisdiction with 911 service. Continued coordination between jurisdictions in handling calls from this particular area will be necessary either by a referral of the calling party to the appropriate jurisdiction's number or by direct patch if the volume warrants. The public educational campaigns and general information pages at the front of the telephone directories will also be helpful in reconciling these problems. In the second stage where both 911 jurisdictions are competing for the use of the central office that overlays portions of both911 calling areas, possibly the best rule of thumb to follow is

\ ~

...

911 Hotline Page 7

to direct the 911 calls to the jurisdiction that has the largest land portion or number of telephone subscribers of the central office area. Here again, there will always be a need for streamlined coordination between the agencies to best serve the public just as we are now doing. I hope this covers most of the major considerations that will be common ingredients in everyone's planning. As community after community tackles the job, many different arrangements will develop that can only be planned by the people on the scene who best know the local problems. As experience is gained, I'm sure new developments and ideas will emerge that no one has dreamed of today. 911 will not be a cure-all nor make life easier. However, the advent of 911 does provide an excellent opportunity to comprehensively evaluate all emergency communications services in our communities in relationship to the government-citizen interface. Do we have the best arrangements to handle major disasters such as floods, riots, aircraft accidents, etc.? And can we better coordinate our resources with neighboring communities and certain state agencies? In conclusion, I think it is most important to resist the tendence to think of 911 in general as a service to public safety. 911 is a service to our public. The individual who will dial 911 for help won't really care what uniform the person answering his plea for help is wearing, as long as he gets the help he needs as fast as possible.