No, NOT me....
9-1-1.
Back on February 16, 1968, using the red phone above (yes children, that is a ROTARY dial phone- you had to WAIT for each number to finish dialing before you could dial the next one, LOL), the first use of a simplfied 9-1-1 system started with one phone call!
Yup- think about that for a moment. You know have 2 generations raised using 9-1-1 as their primary way to reach help!
No running to the box on the corner and setting off a string of morse code alarms that ultimately ended up in a police department, or having to remember the actual phone number or the ambulance company, fire department or police department you needed!
When you think about it, that's pretty amazing!
So say Happy Birthday this week and remember a couple of basic facts:
1. ANY phone, even if it does NOT have current carrier service can call 9-1-1:
that means your old cell phone WILL call 9-1-1 when your toddler plays with it and hits the 9 or 0 key for too long. And THAT might end up with police officers at your door! So PLEASE only give kids old phones to play with if the battery is OUT of it!
2. A cheap landline phone plugged in CAN still call 9-1-1. BUT you have to give the dispatcher the correct address, as that might not come in correctly! This is helpful if you have a co-ed who runs out of cell minutes every month and is living on their own!
3. Internet 9-1-1 calls, including older U-Verse accounts, do NOT show address where help is needed, so make sure you stay on the phone and again, give your correct address!
4. Not ALL cell phones give mapping, or if they do, they may not as quick as you think. Which means if you hang up WITHOUT giving your location, help could be so to arrive as valuable time is wasted trying to track and trace your call!
5. Texting 9-1-1. This is NEW. Not all 9-1-1 systems can handle it correctly yet. MOST will treat the call as a TDD call, which means there can be a delay while dispatchers have to change keyboards to type responses to you. It is NOT as quick as messaging! So be patient! And again, the call will probably not map right away, so GIVE your location, or where the emergency is. Too many text to 9-1-1 calls can overload smaller systems still. Once the next-gen 9-1-1 systems get implemented across the country, this will be resolved, but it's slow in coming.
Smaller agencies can also NOT accept photos/video via 9-1-1 yet either. If you aren't in a major city, don't expect that capability,
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