Why So Many Questions?

Taken from blog "911 Not 411"


The questions 911 calltakers are trained to ask are not to delay response of necessary responders but to enhance the responders' needs and to protect the caller or any nearby citizens. The answers that are provided are relayed to all of the responders who are enroute. This relay of information provides the responder with vital information about the call itself, the nature of the problem, the people it is effecting, the severity of the situation, and the protection of the responder and anyone nearby.

This information also helps the responders determine whether there is a need for lights and siren or if they can respond with the flow of traffic. The caller's answers to these questions help ensure the right unit is dispatched, the right number of units are sent, in the right mode of response. The Fire/EMS and Law Enforcement system as a whole also is utilized more than ever before. The information obtained through careful interrogation of the caller allows the dispatcher to correctly prioritize the calls and send the units to the calls needing the quickest assistance first.

Without the information, the calls would line up and be dispatched in the order they were received. For example, a minor fender bender could be handled before a grandmother in cardiac arrest. The use of properly trained 911 dispatchers can positively influence all aspects of Fire/EMS and Law Enforcement response.