Jul 30 2008
Rescue: 3-1-1
According to Philadelphia’s Mayor Nutter, by the end of this year Philadelphia will have a non-emergency call center for residents to call. The number will be 3-1-1. It will be used to handle calls for situations that are not life threatening.
I know that the idea behind the new number is to take the unnecessary load off of the current 9-1-1 system and ensure that it remains dedicated to the most serious emergencies. Such a system has been implemented in other major cities. However, I wonder if this is the best solution. If I think that an issue is serious enough that I need to pick up the phone and call someone to help, to me that’s serious. I would probably call 9-1-1 because through the eyes of the person that’s calling, it is an emergency. Giving people another number to choose from may only make things more confusing. I can’t think of good examples of reasons you would call this new number, and where to draw the line. What if you call 3-1-1 and after a few minutes they escalate it and transfer you to 9-1-1? You would lose those few minutes that might make a difference in an emergency.
I am not saying that the 9-1-1 system is not abused right now, or that people don’t call for situations that aren’t critical. In fact, I feel that communicating the proper way to use the emergency phone system is important for everyone to understand. I may be wrong, we will see, but I don’t see how providing people with a number for stuff that’s “sorta serious” is going to help people learn the difference between a legit need to respond and just a waste of people’s time.
It should work the other way around. Everybody call 911 and then quickly evaluate the call and send to 311 if not deemed an emergency…since 911 operators are trained to know what an emergency is.