In case of emergency..do you dial 911 or your local police?

I just finished an infant/child CPR class and the women teaching it pointed something out to me that I didnt know.

She said that in many towns on Long Island you are better off calling your local police instead of 911, because its quicker. Many times 911 will re-direct you to your local police.

I called my own town to find out what was better for me in case of emergency to leave with babysitters, parents etc.... and they did say that if a call is placed from a house phone ( not a cell phone) within our town to 911 it is just as quick as calling the local police directly..but if the call is placed from a cell phone calling the local police department directly is quicker.

Just thought this would be helpful for others that didnt know...

Re: In case of emergency..do you dial 911 or your local police?

interesting

Re: In case of emergency..do you dial 911 or your local police?

There are a few EMTs here on this site so they could confirm that.

I believe all 911 calls are automatically routed to Albany. Then they call dispatch on LI.

I was part of a "medical response" team at my work and we had a whole procedure on medical emergencies.

Basically we were told by the FD to call them in addition to 911. The FD would come faster for our medical emergencies.

Re: In case of emergency..do you dial 911 or your local police?

Ive never had to do it but we have a local emergency #. It's definitely the # to call instead of 911. The local FD gave it out when my DS's class had a school trip there otherwise I wouldn't have known. I have it right by all my other emergency #'s just in case.

Re: In case of emergency..do you dial 911 or your local police?

My DH is a fireman, so I call the dispatcher line.

Re: In case of emergency..do you dial 911 or your local police?

We would call our local FD. They send out stickers to put on your phone every year in the annual appeal and explain that they can respond faster than 911.

Re: In case of emergency..do you dial 911 or your local police?

It depends. If I need an ambulance I actually call my local fire house. If I need police I call the local precinct.

I learned this when my house was robbed & I walked in on the people at my house. I called 911 and they transferred me 4 times 10 minutes later I finally get the right person and even then it still took forever to get the info to them & get the cops there....and did I mention I walked in on them....

Re: In case of emergency..do you dial 911 or your local police?

You can call your local ambulance corps. or FD depending on who does EMS in your area, but you should really call 911. If its a medical emergency, don't call the police department.

If you are in suffolk, what happens when you call 911 is that the call goes to suffolk county police dispatch. The dispatcher will ask you the nature of your emergency. If it is a police matter, that dispatcher will take all the info. If its a medical emergency, you will be transferred to Medcom, where the people who answer your call are trained to give you instructions over the phone on what to do in a medical emergency. They will stay on the phone with you while your information is given to another dispactcher who will then activate the appropriate department. A police car and an ambulance will be dispatched to your location. If the emergency involves a child, you will probably get numerous police cars responding.

Hopefully, this information you will never really need to know about.



ETA: when you call from the house phone, all your info - name, address, comes up on the computer in front of the dispatcher.
When you call from a cell phone, they can usually get the number, but not usually the location. They are improving the technology on this, though.

Message edited 11/30/2007 2:54:16 PM.

Re: In case of emergency..do you dial 911 or your local police?

I would TOTALLY call 911.

I used to be a NYPD cop and when I would work the phones (once and while we had to) and we were told if someone called the precinct directly to have them call 911 or we'd transfer the call to 911. I don't know how Nassau works, but it seems that is how the city works, at least with emergencies.