Unanswered 911 calls… a matter of life and death

May 15, 2011 News

By Rabindra Rooplall
It’s the number everyone dials in case of an emergency, and with the upsurge in crime and with members of the public ringing the police stations and the emergency number 911, there have been numerous complaints of persons not getting any response.
The reports are many. The 911 calls go unanswered as the phones at some police stations.
An emergency would loosely be defined as any situation in which a life, property or someone’s safety is in immediate jeopardy. Since 911 is used for emergencies in any part of the world it would be a necessity in this day and age for someone to receive the call on the other end. Every cell phone without credit can access this 911 feature in case of an emergency.
Persons have complained that their calls to a 911 dispatcher were exercises in futility since no one answered their call. And through investigations reporters found that this was indeed the case.
It is noted that in most situations when the police are called on to investigate such complaints, their investigations, according to the police commissioner, proved that the people did not call 911. Many persons are willing to contradict this finding since they claim to have no reason to be fooling around with the police or with dialing 911.
Officials from Guyana Telephone and Telegraph Company (GT&T) are alleging that the company cannot be blamed for the failure of the police to receive or respond to such calls.
In other parts of the world calls to 911 are answered promptly along with other emergency numbers such as 912 and 913, which is responsible for the fire service and for an ambulance emergency respectively.
Is it a case where the police are lackadaisical in their duties or the desk that accepts these calls are often unmanned? Whatever the situation is, there should be internal investigations by the police force and personnels that are defaulters should be uprooted immediately and replace with persons who are capable of carrying out the dispatching duties.
When you call 911 emergency lines, the phone is suppose to answer “911, Do you need Police, Fire or Ambulance?” This question is a necessary one because unfortunately, some people call 911 for non-emergencies, and might be wasting the dispatchers’ time while blocking someone that is calling for a real emergency.
This publication after umpteen tries at dialing 911 and finally accessing the unit, found that what persons have reported about not being able to access the emergency section of the police force was true.
In one case when a complaint was made the reporter was told that the supervisor could not be reached. He was then placed on hold. After being placed on hold for awhile an officer returned to say that the Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR) of the Guyana Police should be contacted for whatever information is needed.

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