|
|
 |
|
 |
|
Questions, Questions, Questions!
APCO-MS.org staff
From the moment your local 9-1-1 answers your call, they ask questions. A lot of questions. A lot of people wonder why some of those questions are necessary, since some seem irrelevant to the emergency and border on nosiness.
But surprise—those questions are important. Asking the right questions makes sure you get the right kind of help and get it as quickly as possible, and protects both you and the public safety heroes responding to your emergency. Without asking those questions, the wrong kind of help could be sent. Or it could be needlessly delayed, or not received at all.
9-1-1 telecommunicators are all-too-familiar with the uncooperative caller who shouts "Just get them here!" and refuses to answer any questions. And frankly, that's stupid. Would you walk into a hospital and tell a doctor to do perform surgery on you without an examination? Of course not!
But if you don't answer questions your 9-1-1 asks, you are doing the same thing. Consider a caller who calls 9-1-1 and screams "Get me someone out here!" and hangs up. If 9-1-1 has no idea what the caller's emergency is, they have no clue what to send. For most 9-1-1 centers, this means an immediate dispatch of law enforcement, to investigate the situation and verify scene safety if other responders are needed. If that responding officer arrives to find the emergency is a blazing house fire, it will then take more time for the fire department to be dispatched and arrive. In that wasted time, the house could be totally destroyed.
But even more tragic is the senseless loss of life that results from not answering questions. Ask any telecommunicator—they can tell you countless stories about people who have died because a caller refused to answer questions. Not answering questions denies you critical help that can mean life or death for someone. 9-1-1 can work with you to keep someone alive until emergency medical units can arrive and provide life support. But if you don't let your 9-1-1 help you, those emergency units may arrive to find that they can't help.
To satisfy the many people that wonder about some of the questions 9-1-1 asks, we've prepared a list of the more common questions and why they are asked. The reasons might surprise you!
What is your address?
This one should be self-explanatory. If 9-1-1 doesn't know where you are, they can't send you help. This is the most important bit of information 9-1-1 gets, and is always the first thing they ask you.
What is the number you're calling from?
Knowing your phone number helps 9-1-1 in several ways. First, it allows 9-1-1 to get you back on the line if you get disconnected. This is particularly important with cellular calls, which are notoriously unreliable and may not transmit your location. Having your number means 9-1-1 can call you back, and keep trying until they get through. Your phone number also helps verify your location when you are unable to give an address, and as a last resort, can be traced to find your location and get help to you.
What's the problem?
Another no-brainer. 9-1-1 needs to know what your emergency is, to know whether to send you police, the fire department, or an ambulance. Again, knowing what's going on helps protect you until help arrives, and makes sure emergency responders don't blindly enter a dangerous situation.
Male or female?
This is the first bit of description necessary when identifying a suspect, but clues 9-1-1 into a lot more. Sex can rule out potential problems in many emergency situations. Men can't give birth, after all. But consider these other differences between the genders:
• Men are more likely to die from an accident.
• Women have more migraines.
• Men are more likely than women to be homicide victims.
• Women are over five times more likely to be victims of domestic sexual assault.
• Men are less likely to die from a stroke.
With crimes, sex also comes into play. Men are three times as likely as women to commit violent crimes, and over thirty times more likely to kill a law enforcement officer. But the sex of the victim is also important. Domestic violence victims are most often female, and many women in situations of domestic violence are too afraid to report the crime. Many jurisdictions dispatch female officers to handle crimes against women—particularly rape—in order to reduce the discomfort of sensitive questions and protect the victim's dignity.
Age?
Even more so than sex, this one can help rule out problems in medical emergencies. It's extremely unlikely that a four-year-old will be suffering from a heart attack, or that an eighty-year-old will die from "crib death". Age plays a factor in many medical problems, and can result in better treatment. (For example, men over thirty-five experiencing chest pain are assumed to be having a heart attack, the most likely and most serious emergency, until proven otherwise by medical examination. This assumption guarantees adequate care for all the possible diagnoses.)
Age also factors into handling of other situations, such as shoplifters. Juvenile shoplifters must receive special handling to protect their rights and privacy as minors. A specially-trained officer may respond for such situations, which helps protect the business from lawsuits.
Race?
Other than sex, race is the most easily-recognized descriptor. A good calltaker will ask for sex, age, and race, and hit you up for any other details you can provide to help positively identify the person. Many people are uncomfortable with discussing race, particularly in light of racial profiling and other violations of civil liberties. But remember that race is another detail that can help protect the innocent and stop the guilty from doing further harm.
Apart from being used for description, race has implications in other areas as well. Did you know whites are far more likely to have breast cancer, but blacks are more likely to have colorectal cancer? Asians have the lowest rate of heart disease, but Hispanics enjoy the lowest rate of strokes. If your 9-1-1 asks for race, chances are they have a very good reason for asking.
Description? What are they wearing?
A lot of people refuse to give descriptions of suspects, and don't realize just how dangerous that is. All sorts of terrible things can happen between the time you call 9-1-1 and the time help arrives, and without a description of the criminal, they can get away cleanly. Having a description enables officers to quickly spot the person and detain them, and prevents innocent people from being caught in the middle of a bad situation. Even if you know the person well and can point them out, something could happen that makes you unable to point them out to responding units. The earlier law enforcement knows who they are looking for, the faster they can stop a criminal and the less harm that criminal can cause.
When describing a suspect, it's a good idea to work from the top down. Start with their hair—what color is it, how long is it, is it straight or curly, permed or colored? Are they wearing a hat? Move down from there, paying attention to things like what kind of jewelry they are wearing, what kind of clothing, even what kind of shoes they have on. And don't forget their body characteristics—tall, thin, short, heavyset. The more you can provide to responding units, the easier and safer their job becomes.
Cross street?
You'd be surprised how many people don't know what a cross street is! A cross street is any street that crosses or intersects the one you're on. Let's say you live on Main Street, like in the map on the right. The nearest intersection to your house is Main Street and West Tenth Street. West Tenth would be your "nearest cross street".
A cross street helps responding units quickly find your location, especially when house numbers are poorly marked, when it's dark, or when the weather is bad.
Cross streets can help even when there aren't any houses. It might be miles from you to your nearest neighbor, but you might be only a short distance from a cross street. In many rural areas and on highways, knowing a cross street can get help there faster and save precious time.
Is he conscious?
This is one of two critical bits of information in medical emergencies. An unconscious person is much more likely to go into arrest than a conscious person. Unconscious people can't remove themselves from dangerous areas, or tell anyone what is wrong with them. They may be difficult to move, and may need special attention to prevent further injury.
Is he breathing?
This is the second crucial bit of information in medical emergencies, and can mean an immediate crisis. A person can survive without food and water for days, but will suffer permanent damage or death in a very few minutes without oxygen. Not breathing is a dire situation that demands immediate attention to save someone's life. Your 9-1-1 can walk you through rescue breathing for a person who isn't able to breathe for themselves, but knowing CPR is always the best chance for saving a person in respiratory arrest.
When did this happen? When did this start?
In many emergencies, it's important to know when things happened. If a crime happened only a few minutes before calling 9-1-1, chances are much greater that the person can be caught. And it's also more likely that the person is still in the area, and still a danger to the caller.
Medical emergencies often become worse as time passes. A person in cardiac arrest has a much greater chance of survival if they receive immediate help, but that chance decreases with every minute that passes. Problems like heart attacks often show signs of trouble long before the person is aware that something is terribly wrong. Emergencies like insect stings and food poisoning typically set in very quickly, and knowing when they happened may change the emergency treatment given.
Everything else...
9-1-1 may ask you a lot more questions, depending on your situation and the other information you give them. They aren't being nosy or disrespectful, and certainly aren't trying to make you uncomfortable. But the information they are asking for is important to the job they do, and giving it readily can save a life, including your own.
- - - - - -
|
|
|
 |
