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Worry Over VZW, Sprint Phones' 911 Alarm
[TheBORG] writes "An Austin woman who dialed 911 recently discovered what she said could be a fatal flaw in some new cell phones. She called for help when she arrived at some vacant property she owns in east Austin and found her security chain gone. She grabbed her new Verizon Wireless Casio G'zOne phone, which to her horror made an audible alarm when she called 911. Fearing vandals were still on the property, she hung up and hid, then put her hand over the earpiece and dialed again to muffle the sounds. A Verizon Wireless spokesperson says it's mandatory according to Section 255 of the Telecommunications Act. The FCC says Section 255 of the Telecommunications Code requires that phones let a caller know a 911 call is underway, but does not require an audible alarm. This thread on Howardforums.com mentions that the alarm is present on new Sprint phones too."
There's her problem. She's using Verizon.
/any/ mobile telcos in the US that don't suck in one way or another? I hated dealing with them for a month as a tourist, let alone for any longer period.
Seriously.. are there
Very practical, when you're hidden in a closet because a criminal comes in with a weapon... I'm sure he won't mind you witness his crime.
What if she had been in a bank or restaurant that was being held up? The alarm would alert the theives and the person could easily be put in danger.
I know a woman this happened to, she was behind the counter when theives broke into a bar to rob it. She hid behind the counter and called 911. If she had this phone, she would most likely be dead.
Maybe the first thing she should do is put the non-emergency police number on her phone so she doesn't have to tie up an emergency line with this bs.
We have the non-emergency police number programmed, just because we want to talk to a real officer and not put on hold to talk with some dumb 911 operator who makes us repeat our address 10 times and other dumb questions. We had a house burn down in front of ours, because it took 911 over 15 minutes to answer. I could have walked to the fire station quicker. We then discovered the non-emergency number and can get an officer here less than a minute any time. Its a real pleasure to talk with a real officer who has a clue what I need help with too. 911 operators don't have that quality.
Who thought that putting an alarm on a phone dialing 911 was a smart idea? It's not always about alerting anyone nearby to the fact that something's wrong- sometimes you don't want anybody to notice you, like when you're home and someone's broken in. Better to err on the side of caution. Eh, glad I know of shops where I live that can get Korean phones onto the Verizon network- I don't have this issue.
OSx86 FTW
" requires that phones let a caller know a 911 call is underway, but does not require an audible alarm."
So now don't bother trying to call 911 the next time there's a school massacre - you'll just be targetting yourself and earning bonus points for your Darwin Award. Fucktards strike again.
I can kind of see the point of this, with all the people who've accidentally dialed 911 while the phone was in their pocket/purse. However, I think this may be the wrong way to go about solving the problem. I don't have any evidence to back up my theory, but I suspect most accidental calls don't actually dial the full 911. I've seen several cell phones before where simply holding down the 9 key will dial 911. If that isn't an accident waiting to happen, I don't know what is. Eliminate that, and I wonder how many accidental calls will be left.
Hm, a woman alone on vacant property with the suspicion that there are bad people there? Yeah, you're right, there's no potential for emergency there. Honestly, sometimes I wish Slashdot didn't allow AC posts. It would solve a lot of hot wind problems like this one.
...
I have had several police officers in several different municipalities (even Chicago, which is quite understaffed and full of very real crime) tell me when I call the non-emergency line to call 911. They say that they would much rather respond quickly to even what seems like a minor problem so it doesn't become a major problem.
If I had mod points I'd mod you troll. I hardly ever do that, but really, you're just picking a dumb fight.
Of course, I'm the putz who bit on it
It is pitch black. You are likely to be eaten by a grue.
This is one of the most important threads I've seen on Slashdot. It's a very good point to recognize a use of technology that could have large side effects on us. I couldn't imagine calling 911 in a situation where privacy was of dire necessity only to have the gizmo give me up. Good submission poster.
I call 911 on a regular basis to report out of control drivers and street fights (I live in Boston, there are tons of both of these). All my Verizon phones (I've had three) go into "Emergency Mode" when you call 911 and stay in this mode for several minutes after the conversation has ended then make a loud chirp when going back into non-emergency mode.
Two semi-related notes... first, a couple months ago my battery died when I was reporting a street fight. When I checked my voicemail after it was done charging I had an irate message from a cop yelling, "DO NOT HANG UP ON THE BOSTON POLICE!" and threatening me with arrest!
Second... on Nokia candy bar phones when the keypad is locked you can key in 911 and it'll automatically come out of the locked mode. Also, 112 does the same. Can anyone tell me what 112 is?
sig.
This is totally ridiculous! That Telecomunication act should be changed to specifically forbid making any sound on 911 calls, even the usual sound some phones do on normal calls.
Any non-compilant phones shoud be upgraded or recalled as well.
I think pepole already showed enough situation (even real ones) where this would be desastrous. Just to add one, I'm always prepared to dial 911 on my phone in my pocket, so if I happen to be in trouble I can call and leave it there. I know the call and geo-location can be traced and within minutes cops will be here even if I don't speak. "Wouldl you like a 911 alarm with that?"
Sometimes I think 911 operators moonlight as cell phone customer service people. Or maybe it's the other way around. Seriously though, a lot depends upon where you are. If your local 911 service is provided by the city you'll probably be ok, since they'll know the cops (some of them probably are local cops.) A lot of this 911 stuff is done under contract to private companies, I understand, and that can be a problem when you get a clueless type on the line. Does anyone know there are any towns that are outsourcing 911 to India yet?
The higher the technology, the sharper that two-edged sword.
In Spain they set up an alternative number that concentrates all alarm calls and distributes them to the different services.
The problem was that most people didn't know exactly who to call in an emergency situation. For example, you see a river overflowing while traveling by train and unsure if you're already in the next state. Or, you see a gang burning down a bank while there's two people bleeding to death in the street.
You are welcome to it.
I have excellent Karma and I am not afraid to Troll it.
This is not a good idea at best and more than likely a horrible idea. The standard I'm trying to call 911 in secret criticism works here. I can't watch the video in the article (youtube video anyone?) but I would imagine if I dialed 911 and heard some crazy alarm coming out of my phone I would hang my phone up and try again. I'm not sure what the alarm sounds like but if it's just some siren I would give up after a few tries thinking 911 was broken. Do we have a way to test this? I can't add or change emergency numbers in my phone and don't really want to call 911 to test my phone out.
Right now the US emergency services are being slashdotted by slashdotters calling 911 to see if their phones go into this mode! Go on, call 911 now and you'll hear that all the operators are busy, and would you hold while they play you some Vivaldi...
Fine. She should have called her local precinct or 311 or something else.
That doesn't take away from the potential dangers of an audible 911 alarm on a cell phone.
By the way, let's have a show of hands. How many of you know the number (or have it programmed into your cell phone) of the local police precinct and firehouse where you live AND where you work?
Help! I'm a slashdot refugee.
It is the GSM international emergency number, and the European emergency number. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1-1-2
This is another problem that can easily be solved by carrying a handgun.
Does a giant exclamation mark appear over your head too?
This is the kind of story that shows up in Risks Digest all the time - an email digest that ought to be mandatory reading for anyone involved in technological development.
Clearly the goal is to reduce bogus 911 calls that occur when a cell phone's keys get accidentally pushed, like in a purse or someone's pocket. But the first question that should have been asked is just how much of a problem are such calls? Yes, we get the occasional anecdote of cell phones gone wild, but is it really such an overwhelming problem that it needs to be fixed at all?
Second, presuming it is so common that 'something must be done' -- then they should have come up with an escalating alarm - like say more than 5 consecutive calls to 911 or more than 10 minutes air-time connected to 911 and the phone plays a short recorded message through the phone so both parties can hear it saying that it is going to start making noise in a few more minutes unless the user - or the 911 operator on the other end - types in a short number to disarm it. Even if the user doesn't know what to do in response to the message, the 911 people will quickly become familiar with such warnings that they will know what to do. (I'm assuming that 911 operators have actual keypads at their stations, that might not be the case.)
When information is power, privacy is freedom.
As a great Canadian Comic once said in his infamours apolgy to America speech;
'I am sorry that we burned down you white house, in that sily war! we are glad you are enjoying the new one.'
So why wasn't she carrying her pistol? I'm in a city in Iowa. When I came home and found my door open and all my lights on, I called 911 after I crept through my house with a large monkey wrench in my hand. 911 then told me to stay outside and wait for police. No thanks. If I had caught the intruder, they would have either given up and waited for the police, or been clobbered by me. Of course I would only swing in self defense, and since I would be cornering them I would consider any move by them to get away a move against myself. The police around here tend to taser or shoot everybody on a scene, then try to sort it out later. I feel safer dealing with morons myself. And my phone beeps too. A Samsung 930 with verizon. My old star tac which I miss dearly, would display "emergency call"
Do a firmware push to turn this feature off of all phones enabled with it ASAP. Someone will be in a compromised situation who needs to call 911, alert a criminal and be killed or seriously hurt because of this.
I'm sure that whoever thought it was a smart idea thought that the primary reason people called 911 was in case of a medical emergency. E911 makes it possible to find your general location, but only to within a city block or so IIRC. A loud alarm on the phone would make it possible for them to find you even if you became unconscious. Unfortunately, it also makes you a huge target if you aren't calling for a medical emergency.
The solution to this problem is to make a separate panic alarm which is activated either manually or remotely by the 911 operator, depending on your situation. Of course, if something happened to you as the result of the operator's decision to turn it on, they'd be liable, so that leaves manual activation, and if you stay on the phone with 911, how are you supposed to activate it?
Danger Will Robinson, Danger
Use your head, can't you, use your head,
You're on earth, there's no cure for that - S. Beckett
>Honestly, sometimes I wish Slashdot didn't allow AC posts. It would solve a lot of hot wind problems like this one.
It may not be obvious to you, but AC posts are vital to slashdot IMHO. I often post things from work AC that are about my employer, or contain relatively privileged information that I would like the community to know without being readily traceable to me. Yes they are also used for abuse, but these are quickly modded -1.
When I have mod points I specifically look for insightful or informative AC posts, as I have to post AC for some of my best comments.
Is there any way to know how a particular phone/provider combination is going to work? Calling 911 to test it doesn't sound like a good idea, but knowing whether or not my phone is going to alert the burglar in my house that I'm there might be good information to have.
Really. I'm not an American and i'm just baffled by your statement. I get news about your health system and i'm shocked (no, i don't mean mister moore's movie - i have no idea how accurate it is). And now this. You can laugh, but the only idea about 911 we have here is what we got in the past from the tv show with that star trek dude. And that seems pretty professional.
And you're totally right about the non-emergency number by the way. Yes it was a situation for the police, but come on, returning from a holiday? It wouldn't matter if you called now or the next day! I guess it takes that long then because more people can't judge for themselves if a situation is really an emergency.
Anyway, doesn't the FCC or whatever body regulate that sort of stuff? here in the socialist paradise of the United Kingdom we have pretty hard and fast standards for emergency response (IIRC it's 8-12 minutes for an ambulance to be on scene, and that applies basically everywhere except isolated & sparsely populated areas like central wales or the Scottish highlands.) Wait half an hour for a reply from the cops in a life-and-death situation and you'd make the front page of the local paper, at least.
OK... I think that if this is often the case then 911 is no longer serving its purpose and should be tossed and rebuilt from scratch.
OSx86 FTW
I'll skip your question because i'm European ;P and i'll add something to it. I once dated an American girl and she thought that 911 was the emergency number for everybody. No, not just everybody in the US. Everybody in the world! Well, i thought it was funny... Arrogant, and funny.
Funeral March?
The danger of being discovered by a criminal because of this Verizon alarm is really disturbing. I would want out of my Verizon contract or , use the Casio only after using my GLOCK so as not to endanger myself. Then tell the police, " I had no choice, I had to shoot the suspect. If I would have called 911 first, it would be me in the body bag ". A few of those incidents and I'll bet Verizon fixes the problem. Cheers
* Carthago Delenda Est *
This has already happened to Esther Green, wife of New York Jet Victor Green. She was carjacked and kidnapped along with her 11-month old baby in 1999. While the carjacker was driving them God-knows-where, Green discreetly reached into the diaper bag and SILENTLY dialed 911, while continuing to engage the kidnapper in conversation. A smart 911 dispatcher listened in and figured out what was going on and sent a cop, using information Green provided in her conversation.
With an audible alarm, Green and her baby would very likely have been dead.
And now the punchline ... In the UK our number is 999, but nowadays 911 works too.
I remember the rationale given that many children would see it on TV and not know it wasn't supposed to apply to them...
The local fire station for where I work? Who cares, let the place burn! HAHAHAHA!
"He who can destroy a thing, controls a thing." --Paul Atreides, Dune
Will 911 be flooded with calls as everyone who reads this story tests their phone to find whether it makes an audible alert when 911 is being called? If I had a cellphone I'd sure as hell be testing it for this misfeature.
112 makes more sense to remember though. Works almost anywhere in Europe be it mobile or landline, and from mobile phones in several other places across the world, including on any GSM phone in the USA.
In the UK you can also dial 101 for non-emergency police and local authority services.
How many people can read hex if only you and dead people can read hex?
No, she did the right thing. The non-emergency numbers are for non-emergencies. One clue that you're not having an emergency is that it seems like a reasonable idea to go to the phone book and skim through a few blue-pages until you find the right number. Obviously, if you have reason to believe you might have to put yourself in physical danger to even get to the phone book, you're not having a non-emergency.
It's important not to abuse the emergency numbers, but it's also just as important not to be nervous about using them when you actually need to.
Can you be Even More Awesome?!
Perhaps they could offer a new alarm tone: SHUCKSHUCK.
rj
Perhaps it's because the same type of people who call customer service call 911? In my rather small remote town, the newspaper has a "Police Blotter", half of which details which bar had the worst night of it and the other half discusses "911" calls. Some recent examples:
- Unruly children not wanting to got to be / do their homework / talk out the garbage.
- Suspicious vehicle (parked somewhere for more than an hour).
- Loose chicken.
- Noisy rooster. (I can sort of agree with this at 4:00 AM).
- More unruly children and / or chickens.
- Snoring Sea Lions (my personal favorite).
- and dozens of children hitting the brightly colored panic button on the phone.
Like in the customer service arena, the signal to noise ratio is pretty low.
Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
Seeing the vandals approach menacingly, she whips out her handgun, but as Murphy's law would have it, she has a senior moment, aims the phone at her would-be attackers, and without looking away, attempts to dial the 911 number on her handgun, wondering why she couldn't hear any of the usual keypress tones...
The strangers come closer...
WARNING: Smartphones have side effects--most of them undocumented.
is to time a simulated "sneeze" or loud cough at the same exact time to mask it. More safely would be to have a coworker "sneeze3" or "cough" who is far away from you to distract them. Sure it would look weird and would draw attention, but at least it doesn't signal the true 911 call.
stuff it in your shirt facing your stomach and sneeze/ cough at the same time.
I know a while back in Australia, 000, directory assistance and IIRC faults were the same people. Mates called Telstra for something and got put on hold for emergency calls.
"Little does he know, but there is no 'I' in 'Idiot'!"
When information is power, privacy is freedom.
... that there isn't already a database of these 911/emergency mode sounds cell phones commonly make when placing such calls. Criminals could then intentionally listen for these sounds as they work so they know exactly who to kill and when.
8==8 Bones 8==8
Yeah, I know -- good point. It just gets to me sometimes.
It is pitch black. You are likely to be eaten by a grue.
> should have been asked is just how much of a problem are such calls?
It will become a problem if designers (or their idiot pointy haired managers) keep making dumb decisions.
Blackberries that have the scroll wheel and/or the pearl are extremely prone to accidentally dialing 911. If the scroll wheel is *touch* or moved in any way - a dialog pops up with three options:
Unlock
Emergency Call (aka Dial 911)
Cancel
So if the scrollwheel was scrolled down a tiny bit (50% of the time!), now all that's needed to call 911 is two presses in a row of the scrollwheel - (there is a confirm dialog, and it defaults to yes please call) - and hey we already know that it's getting mucked with because it got moved!
Guess what the Blackberry/Rogers techs had to say when I phoned them to ask how to disable that? "Putting the phone in your pocket or your purse *IS NOT SUPPORTED* - you are NOT supposed to do that." They claim that blackberries are only being used "as designed" when they are in their crappy shitty uncomfortable holsters*. RIM has clearly heard tons of people bitch to them about it, because they were immediately defensive and angry and very cross for me not keeping it in the holster 24/7 - clearly a canned "oh we need to blame the customer for our screw-up" kind of response.
What kind of stupid idiot designer uses *one button* to create an emergency dialing system? At the very least all other phones require you to press two seperate buttons in a particular order (9 - 1 - 1) without pressing any other buttons within the reset/re-lockout period. I have never EVER pulled my cell out of my pocket to find it ready to call or calling 911. EVERYONE I know has pulled their blackberry out of their purse or pocket to find that it was one button press away from calling 911, and I was walking with another friend on a street when he got a call back from 911 saying "what's the problem, you just called us".
The laws may say the phone has to be able to make emergency calls, but it doesn't say the designers need to be daft idiots.
Someday I'll get around to writing a letter to the chief of police in my city and province, and to the attorney general - and pointing out that all the dead calls they are getting are likely from Blackberries, and that they should sic the dogs on RIM.
(*) Holsters that for one reason or another continuously hold down buttons and keep the screen on.
Well, that will certainly put a stop to those pesky women touch-dialing 911 in their purses during carjackings and other abductions.
And if they made it possible to disable this warning system for criminals, we'd immediately have lawyers recruiting blind people to borrow sighted peoples' phones so they could sue for violation of ADA, just like they do now by having "plaintiff farms" - groups of people holding 1 share of every stock they can get so they can sue when any stock decreases in price.
No problem exists, but if they can manufacture one, they can make money off it.
You could consider this situation a secondary effect of a parasite infestation.
I don't see what's so funny about carrying a gun. Personally I've been in two situations where I very much wish that I had a gun on me. Drawing a gun and pulling the trigger is a hell of a lot more affective than dialing 911 and waiting for the police when you're watching your friend get stabbed 4 times in the back by some meth addict who's pissed at the world because his girlfriend left him. Luckily now I live in a state that allows me to carry a gun. And I do.
Well with society in such capable hands those who try to do other peoples jobs and stick their noses in where they dont belong get what they deserve.
America: Processed cheese eating capitulation elephants.
In America, the running joke is "Call 911, then call and order a Pizza, see which comes first".
Socialism: a lie told by totalitarians and believed by fools.
Hardly! You know how easy it is to know a co-worker's handle/nick/account name? Then find out their politics, then grow to hate them for whatever reason, then find some way to get them fired? Try it and see! It's fun.
You do not want to trade that "No one but you will be able to hear it" Codec for a G'zOne with a Hind-D nearby.
Verizon Guy: *Calls 911* *911 alarm* Can you hear me n *machinegun fire* *death yell*
Colonel: Verizon Guy, what happened? Verizon Guy? VERIZON GUUUUUYYYYYYYYYY!!!
Mei: Is he dead???
Colonel: Good riddance. I was yelling to get those overtime voice-acting checks.
You can hold down the "B" button for continuous firing.
...why I don't own a cell phone. I guess the most relevant reason for me not having one is my lack of a job, but hey, I had a cell for awhile and it drove me absolutely batshit insane. It's nice to be able to contact anyone at any time (assuming you have a signal), but it sure as hell is annoying when your phone rings every 10 minutes.
I don't know about you, but such a "feature" is in principle wilfully endangering users, especially if that "novelty" has not been made very clear in the manual like
"Warning: do not use near criminal activity. This phone's 911 service is only for safe emergancies. Only use near deaf criminals or at noisy places(*).
(*)Notice: nobody will hear you scream there either.
We do not accept any responsibility for stupid design decisions, but if this feature offends you, please return the phone to the shop to exchange it for our new model with attached compressed air canister."
It seems stupidity is the hardiest gene of all..
Insert
If an audible alarm isn't required, why not vibrate the phone vigorously? If you're holding it you'll feel it but it probably won't be audible, at least to anyone else.
What sound do people on rollercoasters make? Hint: it's not Xbox 360.
Back to work,
DC.
I don't get the choice of shooting the bad guy, as i live in the UK and we don't need guns unless we are employed to protect important people.
Here, if you call the police because of an armed intruder, the cops just surround your property and sit outside till you are dead.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/oxfordshire/4740688.stm
They whose government reduces their essential liberties for temporary security, receive neither liberty nor security.
That's scary. For the record, I live in Oregon, and the last time I called 911 (from my non-Verizon cell phone, with no obnoxious alarm) I got an immediate response from a competent operator. At least around here, the system usually works.
$x='S24;r)>63/* h@<5+oZ)32"5cz';$me='phroggy'x$];
$x=~y+ -xz+\0-Tx+;print$_^chop$me for split'',$x;
I one time dialed 311 (non-emergency number) because someone was driving crazy and the police transferred me to 911.
Sometimes we get so conditioned to not use 911 that we don't use it when we should.
Just because it CAN be done, doesn't mean it should!
Why not vibrate? Although that is pretty audible if you're close enough to someone, it's a bit easier to muffle than a loud alarm, and is equally easy to notice (seeing as you did dial the call, you are hanging on to the phone, hopefully well). And if you dial it accidentally, if your phone is in its holster or in your purse or pocket, it'd be somewhat easy to notice too... Or at least, easier if you're close enough to it.
Or, heck, turn it into a setting. "Notify when calling 911? Off/On" so all the blind people can turn on vibrate or super duper piercing alarm or whatnot, and all of us people who can see can disable it for our safety.
Regardless, it's still a risk, and should be gone.
Last time I dialed 911 from my cell phone I got an automatic phone system. How's that for emergency service?
This make me remember the book "Dial 911 and die"
Or do what I do.
Mod AC -6 in your posting interface, and THEN read at 0.
Not brave enough to own your own words? Then I don't care what you have to say.
Just another "DOJ fascist authoritarian totalitarian bootlicker" -- Zeio
I had the opposite experience. I saw a guy in the parking lot outside my apartment that was maybe stealing a car (didn't know if he was just trying to get back into his own car, he wasn't breaking anything). I figured that no one was in any danger, so I'd call the none emergency number. I sat on hold for about 10 minutes, at which point the guy had already left the car. The operator at the police station threw a fit because I was watching a crime-in-progress and I didn't call the emergency number.
Admittedly, it's my responsibility to know which number to call. But couldn't they please make it a little bit more clear? I'm happy to call whichever one, as long as they'll tell me which.
T-Mobile is the best unless you routinely travel outside major metropolitan areas.
But then again, who the hell goes to Kansas anyway?
I don't like automated "helper" systems like this that can't be overridden. It's my nature to try to come up with a situation where they'll do more harm than good. My pet anti-favorite is always-on headlights on cars. I imagine a scenario where you're in the middle of nowhere and trying to get away from the bad guys before they can find you. You ease the keys into the ignition of your silent-running electric car, take a deep breath, and turn it on - only to see your lights^Wbeacons come on. The bad guys jump out and shoot you.
Safety features are great, but they must be overrideable.
Dewey, what part of this looks like authorities should be involved?
While it is a great idea to have the non-emergency number ready, in the case of a real emergency please DO CALL 911 first!
The reason for this is simple: Who do you think the officer will have to tell where he is going?
He will talk to exactly the same people at dispatch and request additional resources.
I agree that sometimes 911 service is lacking in parts of this country, but it's still your best bet at getting fast service.
The dispatchers actually do know very well what you will need and are the only ones that can coordinate a joint response by police, medical and fire.
If you realize that you have accidentally dialed 911, the correct thing to do is to stay on the line and tell the operator that you dialed it by mistake. Then nothing happens.
It happened to me once, in an office where I had to dial 9 to get an outside line. Trying to call long-distance to L.A. (9-1-310-xxx-xxxx), my finger slipped and missed the 3.
To make it even simpler: if you would like emergency services to show up within the next 24 hours, it's a big clue that you shouldn't bother looking up the non-emergency number, and should instead call 911.
People here are taking abuse of 911 far too seriously. 911 abuse is things like calling them to ask what time it is, or to inform them that the local donut shop isn't open even though their hours of operation clearly state that they should be open.
Calling 911 to report an intrusion onto your property is exactly what it's for. Nobody is going to get upset with you for calling 911 to report a crime, that's why the thing exists.
Anyway, doesn't the FCC or whatever body regulate that sort of stuff? here in the socialist paradise of the United Kingdom we have pretty hard and fast standards for emergency response (IIRC it's 8-12 minutes for an ambulance to be on scene, and that applies basically everywhere except isolated & sparsely populated areas like central wales or the Scottish highlands.) Wait half an hour for a reply from the cops in a life-and-death situation and you'd make the front page of the local paper, at least.
The FCC is the Federal Communications Commission. They have no authority over anything that is not wireless or TV related.
Now, to Police and Medical assistance, this is run by the local government with state funding. The federal government has little to no say in this. For the most part, response times are established by the local government, which is roughly two government levels below the national government. The local governments are the ones that pay for most of the police, firefighters and emergency medical assistance.
Fly me to the moon Let me sing among those stars Let me see what spring is like On jupiter and mars
I sometimes run alcohol sales for special events. While getting out liquor license for an event at the Cow Palace in San Francisco we learned that while its called the San Francisco Cow Palace, its really in Daily City. But when you call 911 and tell them you have a problem there, they still dispatch San Francisco Police which come from farther away and are slow to respond. The Chief of Police for Daily City actually told us to NEVER call 911 while doing an event there and gave us the direct number to dispatch...
All cell phone 911 calls in Northern California actually goes to the CHP (California Highway Patrol) dispatcher in Vacaville. Half the time you sit on hold for 5 minutes before getting an operator.
So instead of actually fixxing the system to recognize who the closer public services are and dispatch them, you have legislators adding idiotic and completely fubar new regulations which will effectively deter people from using the emergency services during crimes. I'm sure there are criminals all over lauding this new "feature".
My current Samsung/verizon phone does NOT do this as I have called 911 in the past. But when I am finally forced to upgrade(surprised I haven't been already....my phone is 3 years old), I already have a fix for it. I never use the audible ringtones anyways. My phone is always on "vibrate". If I am not wearing it, I simply lay it on a hard surface. The vibrate function when it is laying on a hard surface is sufficiently noisy enough that I can hear it from quite a distance.
That being said, I'll simply open the little badboy up and install a low-profile slider switch in the external speaker circuit. No sound unless I WANT it to make sound.
This also has the added benefit of silencing the "mandatory" audible warning that I am taking a photograph with my phone, as well. This audible warning can get one in the same trouble if you are taking a photo of a crime in action. The perp hears it, and knows its time to take somebodies phone from them, more then likely, by force.
Now, I know that the photo sound was added to keep undesirables from snapping pics of people when they do NOT have their permission, but is a criminal going to give me that permission? I feel it was just another attempt to regulate all of us to prevent a very small portion of us from committing crimes.
The sound your phone makes when you take a photo also alerts the COPS that you just took a photo of them roughing up somebody(just an example). And trust me, they know the sound of it. I tested this once when I was walking by an officer giving a traffic ticket to a driver he had pulled over. With my phone in my pocket(entirely unable to take an image of the officer)I simply hit the softkey that triggers the camera. The sound alone was enough to make him turn his head towards me as I walked by.
Umm, NO - it was NOT an emergency. Sure, she didn't have a handy-dandy Yeloow Pages - but re-read... she got there and found that the (locking) chain was GONE!!!
That's not an emergency. There's no way that 911 should've been utilized in that set of circumstances. She gets back into her car & drives away. Somewhere safe - then call information to get the right number to call. Yeah - she's panicked that the chain is gone - don't burden an over-worked EMERGENCY sytem with crap like that.
Do you really want her 'emergency call' to tie-up a 911 operator while your buddy lies bleeding in the gutter from a hit & run?
What do you expect from a country where it is common for people to call 911 for trivial matters such as people entering their store wearing the same color clothes as the staff... OMG!!1!
http://www.improveverywhere.com/2006/04/23/best-buy/
I have a Treo 680 and have had the Treo 650 before that, and I can guarantee that neither of these handsets, through their service at Cingular ("Single-Bar") and AT&T have this "loud" feature.
I regularly accidentally call 9-1-1 on my phone, because their stupid handsets automatically go into a mode when the keypad is locked that presents you with two options: "Ok" (after entering your unlock password) and "Make Emergency Call".
When my bluetooth headset is in my pocket, it regularly hits the "Make Emergency Call" button, and the 9-1-1 operator is subject to whatever noises are present, muffled through my pants pocket. Sometimes they call back or leave messages telling me that I've accidentally dialed 9-1-1 on them.
But there is most-certainly NOT a loud tone, chip, alarm or otherwise, when I dial them, accidentally or otherwise.
Maybe you can use this as a diversion. Dial 911, toss the phone across the room and put it on speaker phone?
Of course I'm kidding. This would just rile up anyone and get them looking for whose phone it was (or just randomly beating someone). Then again, if you REALLY didn't like someone nearby...you could hand them the phone...
What'd be really interesting if criminals started using these for those silly girls who go on their cellphones when walking down an alley, etc... and call up friends.
"Did you hear the 911 beep, Joe?"
"Nope, lets go get her purse!"
Ginga no Rekshiya Mata Each page.
When you dial 911 you're giving away confidential private information about the criminal's activities. It's against his human rights to "compromise" his identity that way. Your only morally acceptable course of action against him is to pirate his music.
...we all know it was Mr. Green in the Library with the Rope.
...
...damn.
-5, Uninformative :-)
Brasil:
190 = police / all emergencies
192 = ambulance (190 also calls them for you)
193 = fire department
It's better to be the foot on the boot than the face on the pavement. ~~ tkx Kadin2048
Beautiful; I am in complete awe.
I think that if this is often the case then 911 is no longer serving its purpose and should be tossed and rebuilt from scratch.
Our city did do something about it! We kicked out our mayor who ran up our city's credit card by electing the city auditor to that position. Elections sometimes do work.
I take it that zombies are a big problem in the UK then?
Texas is a very gun-friendly state, mostly because of this heroic person: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suzanna_Hupp
Ship the phone with tone enabled by default.
Put a red flier in the box saying that the tone is there, and how to disable it for non-blind people.
Put a braile card in the box for blind people explaining how to test if the tone is there, and how to enable it.
Enjoy!
s called customizability.
And meanwhile, the maker of the Red flier and the braile flier wil.... Profit?
*** Suerte a todos y Feliz dia!
I'm an RA at a college in the east (unnamed for keeping my job reasons) that recently had a fairly paramount tragedy, and as an RA I have to call the cops ALL the time because of inebriated people and otherwise incapacitated people who I'm somewhat obligated to help out (I love the job, and couldn't feel safer :P cause our cops are awesome)
Nevertheless I have a LG phone that makes the loudest most annoying *emergency call* sound when I dial 911, and the worst part is the resident that I'm trying to help gets distressed because they think I'm out to get them arrested (normally I'm trying to look out for their well being). I cant turn it off and I'm always a little afraid that someone could get violent or attack me if they hear it go off when I go to make the call. I think this needs to be fixed, or optional, or in order to accommodate the handicapped, have it only enabled on phones that the purchaser specifically asks the dealer to enable it on.
I am a 911 operator. If your burning house was on a street with a common name (there are a lot of Oak Streets out there), we may be asking to clarify which Oak St. you're talking about. Also, there are plenty of times when either I can hear a caller perfectly well, and they can't hear me, or vice versa. When it's practical, you're almost always better off using a wire line rather than a cell phone to contact 911.
As for getting accidental calls from cell phones in pockets or purses, it happens all the time, and frequently, one particular phone can dial in accidentally dozens of times in one night. Having the phone vibrate when you dial 911 makes more sense to me, rather than have it make a sound. That way, the caller knows they really did call 911, unneeded redialed are a problem too, and, nobody else should be able to hear it vibrating. It would also encourage people to get their phone out when dialing in error, and move it into another pocket.
Doesn't make you safer. Makes you feel safer.
As I've been saying for years, the E-911 system was just a con designed to put a GPS tracker into everyone's phone that could be accessed at will by the gubmint or whomever has the juice. I never needed to feel safe; I lack the hysteria gene that's been injected into Americans. But I do resent the tracker. And the possible tracker location log. EVERY damned police state trick they install is somehow designed to protect you from the you-know-whos nudge nudge wink wink. But the tech is always eventually turned against the population. We've survived for a half million years without being tracked in a giant prison state. We don't need it. We're feed stories of evil home invaders and dark muggers and we've turned our lives over to faceless organizations to "help" us. I'll never understand the cowardice that's gripped this country.
An emergency circuit containing the GPS location snitcher, powered by an actual physical on-off switch, fine, good, you can have a heart attack and help will come. But having the snitch hard-wired into the phone so it cannot be disabled without disabling the entire unit? That is defective by design, not designed to help you, but to track you against your will if someone wishes to do so. Powering off with a switch won't kill it -- there're tricks to get around that, and same for the software off option in the menus. We've been feed a massive con by the Total Information Awareness power freaks who drove that design through. Bet you MANY bucks that rich and powerful men can opt out of the tracking with special phones. Doubt Cheney's phone has a snitch. It's the schlubs that get to be tagged hyenas.
I have a Pearl and have accidentally called 911 several times in the manner you described. It's actually really annoying when the operating starts screaming at you for not locking your keypad. The last time it happened I replied with "It was locked jackass, look at a Blackberry Pearl sometime". I'm suprised I didn't end up in jail!
SILENT ALARM ACTIVATED!
Unfortunately in the US in order to cut costs, many smaller departments are simply forwarding their phones to 911 at night so that won't work.
"If the jerks had really considered the entire subset of disabled, they might have realized that a "vibrate" pulse every 3-5 seconds is the only solution for both deaf and blind people"
I have no nerve endings, you mongoloid mo-ron! I can't feel vibrations! But your literary callousness, I felt that.
I called 911 a few times with my cell phone supposedly in keyboard locked mode because of 08 + "dial". It's super easy to do since it's only 2 digits and they're in line vertically (including the call button on many phones).
Not sure if that was specific to my Nokia model or not. I eventually looked it up, it's the emergency number for Mexico, I think.
Anyway, after getting a scolding from the call centre a couple times, I've vowed to always get flip phones from now on.
I think you have my stapler.
What a blatent, idiotic anti-American troll. No wonder you posted it AC.
For starters, one damn story from a group dedicated to causing precisely this kind of stir ("Improv Everywhere causes scenes of chaos and joy in public places") does not suddenly make it common.
Secondly, the response was appropriate. If you bring 80 people into a store dressed like employees, you're absolutely up to no good. In this case "no good" was trying to agitate people so they could document it and try to make fun of them on their website. It could range from that all the way up to their fear: some sort of elaborate robbery attempt.
Either way, they should be removed from the store. Whether it's 80 random douchebags confusing customers, taking up space and staff time and having no intention of buying anything or a full-on robbery, they have no reason to be there. They should be removed and the reliable way to do that is to ask the police to do it. (Why? Because all security can do is ask you to leave; if you refuse, the only recourse is to call the police anyway.) While they're there they may as well make sure it WASN'T a robbery, because otherwise snide-ass anti-American, anti-police Anonymous Cowards on Slashdot would be railing against the incompetence of the police force to let 80 people "obviously" there to rob the joint get away with merchandise.
Blarghhh. I truly am beginning to hate this site and the cesspool of idiots that has infected it.
I thought it was 112 for mobile phones. Isn't it meant to be an international stadard or somethin?
You sure you meant to say knocking them up? Because that gives me quite confused prosedure for getting help with 97-year-old grandma...
According to TFA, she called 911 after noticing her "security chain" (i.e., "driveway fence") was missing. The property was otherwise unoccupied, so it stands to reason that no one's life was in danger at the time.
So why did she dial 911, which is for emergencies only?
Other phones (e.g. Nokia) just ignore the keylock when dialing 112 (GSM / european emergency number).
With the phone locked, pressing the keys in random order (like happens in your pocket, that's why we lock phones in the first place) will be ignored. Except for the 1 key. Touch the 1 key, and the display say "1". Keep pressing random keys, and they will be ignored. Except for the 1 key. Now the display says "11".
Keep pressing random keys... They will be ignored. Even the 1 key is ignored. But touch the 2 key just once... "112". After that, all the numbers will be ignored, no exceptions. But the dial key on the other hand...
Back when I had a phone like that, I have at least once pulled it out of the holster saying "11", even though the keypad was locked. That's how I noticed the problem.
This is a phone bought in europe. If you buy a similar phone in the US, it would probably do the same for 911.
Now I have a clamshell phone. End of *that* problem. (Now, if just I could get hold of the moron who decided to put the camera button on the *outside*, I would print out and make him eat a few thousand pictures of the inside of my pocket.
I was at a first aid course the other day and the guy from the ambulance service said we have three, 999 which is the uk number, which is also why in most offices you dial 9 for an outside line, so you can just keep punching 9 and you'll get through. 112 because that's what mainland europe use and 911 because of north america.
He did point out the americans don't reciprocate.
Didn't George Washington have wooden teeth?
In my town 911 has the "COPS" theme song as the ring-back tone.
(And then they get angry at you for not texting them instead, I think they have a rate-plan issue)
-- I browse at +5 with stripped sigs
This definitely isn't new. I've had my (Verizon LG VX7000) for about 2.5 years, and it also makes a loud audible alarm when you call 911. The alarm is quite distracting, and persists even if I'm on vibrate or silent mode. I've used 911 to report a few crimes and a downed powerline in my area, and each time it infuriates me. I don't know what kind of an idiot would think it a good idea, but I called and complained already. Good to see they take that (and common sense) into account, eh?
-----[0_o]-----
We are not amused.
I continue to be impressed by the depth of stupidity of some posters. Your objection (deaf people? seriously?) just goes to show that no matter what you do someone will make up a fake, contrived, ridiculous situation to complain about.
Unlimited M2M? Dude, that's so gay.
It doesn't mean much now, it's built for the future.
They geniuses at Verizon labs came up with a new idea. In addition to the alarm, new models will also feature a huge neon-sign that pops out of the handset with an arrow pointing to the caller and flashing "lookie here! I'm dialing 911!". This idea was approved out of a pile of other ideas that included an inkjet built in that sprays the letters "I'm a snitch, kill me" onto the caller,
and an autodialer that detects and dials the perp's phone to let him/her know who is calling 911 on them and where they can be found (thanks to the built in GPS).
Where the heck do you live? Loose chickens I can somewhat understand in a small remote town, but *sea lions*?
OSx86 FTW
The true Blackberry branded holsters have a magnet in them that puts the phone to sleep via a sensor in the phone. You sure you're using RIM-created Blackberry branded holsters and not cheap $3 Chinese crap?
+++OK ATH
You base your comment on the assumptions that what was said by an employee is really company policy (it's not, I have Verizon, I have used 911, no sound). In addition Verizon has opened their network, you can use any phone you want to buy, subject to being technically suitable, and run any software you want. Yes, the ad says explicitly you can, I'm not drawing a conclusion on my own.
I would hope to be able to use a Linux powered "gPhone" at some time in the near future.