911 Communications Center – Department of Emergency Services (2024)

If you call 911 by mistake, DO NOT HANG UP. Stay on the line and tell the dispatcher that everything is all right. If a caller to 911 hangs up without stating the problem, the caller must be contacted in order to ensure that no actual emergency exits. This may involve the dispatching of a law enforcement officer to your home or place of business in order to ensure that a problem does not exist. One common misconception that citizens have about dialing 911 by mistake is they will somehow get into trouble. This is not true!

Posting your house numbers is crucial to emergency responders in locating you in your time of need. Remember, Enhanced 911 only tells us (the 911 Telecommunicators) where you are. This information has to then be relayed to the responding units. Posting your house numbers makes you much easier to find during an emergency.

Dispatchers ask for pertinent information first – address, type of call, name of caller or those involved, and your call back number. Once the initial information is obtained, additional questions may be asked depending on the type of call. The questioning will not slow down the dispatching of the appropriate assistance. In emergency cases, this information is relayed immediately to field units so they may begin responding to the incident, while the dispatcher remains on the phone to obtain further details that are also relayed to the responding units as it is gathered, in real time. The dispatcher will further assist callers by giving instructions to callers on how to administer life saving techniques, such as CPR, during medical emergencies; to take steps to promote the personal safety of the caller, the victim and responding Police, Fire, or EMS personnel, and to engage in those actions that preserve evidence to aid in the apprehension of suspects.

In most cases, yes however. If you have a cellular phone that is four years old or older, it may not possess the technology necessary to transmit your location information. If you don’t know where your are when calling 911 it is extremely important to relay information you can see such as road signs, landmarks, nearby building numbers. 911 Dispatchers are trained to locate you by asking specific questions and information you provide will greatly assist in discovering your approximate location.

Yes. When necessary, a 911 call taker can add an interpreter from an outside service to the line. We use an over-the-phone interpretation service of more than 140 languages, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. A non-English speaking caller may hear a short conversation in English and some clicking sounds as the interpreter is added to the line.