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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.
" 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.
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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.
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.
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...
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.
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>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.
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.
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...
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
I think you left out one possible outcome. If you don't go in all that's at risk is your stuff. By going in you've raised the stakes enormously. It doesn't matter if you are the toughest guy who ever walked the planet. As they say in poker, "Going all-in works every time. Right up until it doesn't."
Even if she had been carrying a pistol, dialing 911 should still have been (at least nearly) her first act. And her phone should not have started making noise.
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.
> 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.
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?
Just to offer up a word of caution, I've read quite a few times that semi-autos don't cycle properly with Glasers. So if you're going to use them, test them first. (This would actually apply to any loading you plan to use for defense)
It isn't cheap, especially with the price tag on Glasers. But defending your life isn't cheap either, with lost income and legal costs.
I don't expect morality, equality, consistency, or justice from the law. I expect only legality.