Montgomery County 911 Communications Center Frequently Asked Questions

Q: When should I call 911?

A: Any emergency requiring an immediate Fire Department, Ambulance, or Law Enforcement Officer response is reason to call 911.

Q: When shouldn't I call 911?

A: Incidents not requiring an immediate response from a Fire Department, Ambulance, or Law Enforcement Officer are better handled by calling a non-emergency number.

Q: Why do I always have to answer a bunch of questions about where I am and what my phone number is when I call 911? Doesn't your computer tell you that?

A: 911 telecommunicators cannot send you help if they don't know where you are and what's going on. Although the phone number and address provided by the 911 computer are nearly always correct, even computers make mistakes. That is why the telecommunicator must confirm that information by asking the caller. Also, many times callers are requesting help at a location other than the one they are calling from. Obviously, if help gets sent to the wrong location, there will be a delay in getting help to the person in need at the correct location. That delay might simply be inconvenient, but it also could mean the difference between life and death.

Q: When all I want is an ambulance, why do I have to answer a bunch of medical questions? I'm not a doctor.

A: Montgomery County's 911 telecommunicators are certified Emergency Medical Dispatchers (EMD). As EMDs, they are required to ask you medical questions, both to provide information to the responding paramedics and to offer instructions to you over the phone, when necessary. When you answer those questions to the best of your ability, they move along much more quickly than when you argue with the dispatcher about them. If you are the patient, the EMD can stay on the line with you, offering help and keeping the responding paramedics updated by radio while they are on the way. If you are not the patient, the EMD can provide you with instructions, such as how to perform CPR or the Heimlich Maneuver, that might make the difference between whether or not the patient even stays alive until the paramedics arrive.

Q: If my water pipes break, should I call 911? It's an emergency, isn't it?

A: Although broken pipes or water leaks are something you certainly want to get fixed as soon as possible, none of the agencies dispatched by 911 provide that service. You need to call a plumber, and we cannot tell you what plumber to call.

Q: Why shouldn't I call 911 when my power goes out? I don't like just leaving a message on the power company's answering machine. I want to talk to a real person.

A: When you call a power company's outage reporting line and leave a message about your power being off, automated location equipment similar to that used in 911 records your account information based upon your address and phone number. So even when all you can do is leave a message, you are also leaving valuable location information to help the power company find where the problem is. The power company uses that information, regardless of whether or not you actually spoke to anyone, to plot your location in its power grid. The problem is often somewhere other than your house, and this information helps them go directly to the source of the problem. So if you call 911, and a 911 telecommunicator calls in your service request for you, the power company gets the location of the 911 center, not your house. Then that information has to be verbally collected and manually recorded into the power company database. The final result is a slower response than you would have gotten if you had used the automated system in the first place.

 

A brief history

The present 911 Communications Center became operational in the spring of 1999. It represented a significant improvement in 911 capabilities over its predecessor. Where the former 911 office (a single, small room in the basement of the courthouse) was capable of receiving basic 911 calls, the only information available to the 911 telecommunicators answering the calls was the phone exchange where the call originated. For example, calls from the 572 or 576 exchange were considered “Troy” calls, even though they might come from an address in Ophir or Flint Hill. Telecommunicators had to rely on the caller to give them address and phone number information, as well as the kind of help they required, before help could be sent. Then all of that information was hand recorded with pen and paper.

When the new center came on line, it began receiving “enhanced” 911 calls from telephones which were connected to phone lines, including “cordless” phones that rely on a cradle or base which is plugged into a phone jack. “Enhanced” meant that when the call came in, it was processed by a computer to provide the telephone number of the caller's phone, the address where the phone was located, and the accountholder's name. After verifying that the displayed information was correct, the 911 telecommunicator could then “dump” that information into a new Computer Aided Dispatch system, or CAD. CAD provided a computerized way of entering and keeping track of the progress of a call, replacing the pen and paper of old.

While those improvements significantly streamlined call reception and record keeping, mobile, or “wireless,” phone calls were still un-enhanced in 1999. Although they came in on a dedicated 911 phone line, no location or phone number information was provided for the telecommunicator answering the call. Unfortunately, callers using wireless 911 are frequently not able to tell the telecommunicator where they are, simply because they are unfamiliar with the area they are in when they place the call. This is particularly true of travelers just passing through the county. Since more and more 911 calls are being placed from mobile phones, such as when people witness a traffic accident or suffer a breakdown on the highway, callers not knowing where they are is a huge problem. Without location information, 911 telecommunicators have no way of knowing where to send help.

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has addressed that problem by mandating that mobile phone companies start providing phone number and location information in two phases. Wireless E911 Phase I provides the caller's mobile phone number to the 911 telecommunicator answering the call, but still does not provide any location information. Montgomery County 911 Communications now receives that type of Wireless E911 Phase I information. Wireless E911 Phase II still provides the caller's phone number, but adds a caller's location based upon latitude and longitude, as well. That lat/lon point is then plotted on a computerized map of the county so the 911 telecommunicator can see what road or address or other landmark the caller is near, and what Fire, EMS, or Law Enforcement units to send. Montgomery County 911 Communications does not presently receive Wireless E911 Phase II service, but we have requested it from the wireless phone companies serving the county, and they are supposed to begin providing it by the spring of 2004.

The changes in wireless 911 service represent just one example of how 911 technology continually evolves. As computer capabilities improve, 911 software programmers are able to develop applications that further improve 911 telecommunicators' ability to provide quicker, more accurate responses to people's calls for help. To stay on top of that technology curve, equipment and software constantly require upgrades and/or replacement. Our goal is to provide the best service we possibly can to the people who call us for help, and taking advantage of technological advances as often as we can is one way we can move closer to that goal.

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