Class, please read this report on the 911 system (also found under the readings tab on OpenLab). What does the analysis on the 911 system reveal about the need in communities and how they be better addressed instead of calling the police? (Please also discuss anything else that comes to mind).
Please be sure to respond to at least *two* other student posts.
*Be sure to review the discussion board grading rubric found under Course Materials to know the expectations for participation*
The analysis on the 911 system reveals that the in-need communities often call the police/911 for unrelated crimes. In other words, the police often find themselves answering and wasting a lot of time responding to calls for service/social work such as “quality-of-life issues like noise, blocked driveways, or public intoxication. Others are for problems like drug abuse, homelessness, or mental health crises”. The analysis states that these issues could be better addressed/resolved if people called community-based treatment or other resources that aren’t draining valuable criminal justice or crisis intervention resources. Examples of other alternatives shown in this report were calling 211 for community health and human service resources, 311 for non-emergency public services such as noise, potholes, graffiti, etc. Before reading this report, I was very ignorant of a lot of these things. I think the city, or the government should educate people more about this. This will not only educate people about calling the appropriate line but also, it would allow police to have a better response time. The report mentioned that in areas where police have faster response times, the community and the police have better relations.
Hi Lenny,
I completely agree with your post. There are many services that are available that can be used in a non emergency situation or a situation that can be assisted by a service that specializes in that area. What caught my attention when reading your post was when you mentioned that the city or government should educate more people about the services. That is extremely important because there might not be people who know about those services and it can definitely help 911 in not receiving as many non related crime calls. 911 shouldn’t be the main priority in every situation when there are services that can better assist and help others in need.
Lenny you made so many good points. I agree that there should be a hotline for community or less severe related problems. When someone calls 911 and they aren’t facing an emergency it only takes up officers time and potentially saving a life. Most 911 calls aren’t actually Crime related but more domestic.
Hey Lenny
I agree with you that people should read this reading. I feel like everyone should have one to read and keep at hand. This will help people learn not to call 911 for little petty things, but only for real-life or death issues.
Hi! I almost forgot 311 existed, because it seems like 311 accepts the complaint but does not do anything about it which makes people feel like it’s ineffective. It’s probably better if the government created another hotline that is for non-emergency complaints in which a response team is sent, but they are unarmed and don’t have the ability to address assault situations.
Hello Lenny, I acknowledge that this reading should be read by all. This will teach us not to dial 911 for minor matters, but only for life crisis emergencies.
Hello Lenny, I couldn’t agree with you more because lot of people aren’t educated enough to know that there are other services provided to help them out instead of just 911. Most of the times, I be forgetting about 211 because it’s not mentioned a lot.
We know that a 911 call is made during an emergency situation and when it needs help. However, there are many times that police waste their time in responding to 911 calls because there are calls made that are not crime related. “Many are for quality-of-life issues like noise, blocked driveways, or public intoxication. Others are for problems like drug abuse, homelessness, or mental health crises that would be better resolved with community-based treatment or other resources—not a criminal justice response.” In other words, when there is a 911 call these are the situations at times and there should be other places to call to deal with these kinds of situations. The 911 system has developed an understanding of many situations which can reveal the need in communities, but the main focus for 911 needs to be for emergencies only because if they are wasting their time on a simple situation or a situation that can be handled through a different source they can further attend and help criminal based calls. What they can do to better address needs in a community instead of calling the police is calling 211, 311, or even crisis hotlines. “The 211 service can be used to connect callers with community health and human services resources.” This service can assist better with homelessness, providing shelter, employment, rehabilitation, etc. “311 is a non emergency public services line people can use to file complaints about issues such as noise, potholes, and graffiti, as well as obtain public information on a variety of topics.” This service can better assist simple situations that are non criminal nor non emergency. Crisis hotlines “provide services to individuals experiencing mental health issues.” This service specifically specializes to help those with mental health issues. These are situations in which people need help, but instead of calling 911 they call services that pertain specifically to their need.
Denise I agree that most calls shouldn’t be directed to 911. There should be additional hotline numbers that provide services for things such as homelessness or mental health related problems. For example if someone on the street sees a person that is not mentally stable then they immediately think about calling the cops. This doesn’t usually have a positive outcome as police aren’t trained to handle mentally ill people. Same thing goes for homeless people. Cops are called on them. for sleeping on subway stations and parks but then again they have nowhere to sleep so how can we possibly get mad at them for trying to find shelter.
Hi Denise,
I totally agree with your point of view. I also believe there should be other public service line where people can call when they need help or assistance on a non-crime related situation. I also agree when you said that police waste their time to respond to situation that aren’t crime related, instead of responding to an actual crime. I also feel there should be an specific line for a situation that is unrelated to crime because in that way people would receive the adequate and appropriate help.
Hi Denise,
I agree with you, I also covered a lot of the things you mentioned. But what stood out to me in your post was when you talked about mental health. I just can’t picture a police officer dealing with someone with mental health issues. I feel like they wouldn’t be able to help that person whatsoever, arresting them wouldn’t solve anything. It is indeed important people call the right numbers for assistance.
After reading this report I am aware that most 911 calls aren’t related to crimes. Most of them are for daily life problems and could be resolved without the presence of police officers. A lot of the cops time is consumed when they are called to deal with domestic situations. I believe that we should have other hotlines that provide many services for those in need. As I stated in one of my replies we can’t get upset with homeless people for sleeping in subway stations when they have nowhere else to go. I believe that everyone should read this report so we can all be up to date and know that we shouldn’t call 911 unless it’s a life or death situation or a Crime has been committed.
Hi, Quetza
I agree with you, there are just some things police shouldn’t have to waste their time on or aren’t properly trained for. Having hotlines that properly deal with specific situations such as mental health or domestic abuse would be the right step moving forward.
Hi Quetza,
I completely agree with what you said. Calls made to 911 should be directly related to crime situations and other non-emergency calls should be directed to a specific hotline. Many calls that are not crime nor emergency related waste the time of a police officer. I believe you made a good point in terms of homeless people . Instead of someone calling the cops because a homeless person is sleeping in the train or train station they should instead make a call to a service that can better help in giving that person shelter. That is a better step to follow rather than directly going to the police.
Hi Quetza
I agree with you and the 911 calls. I would have always thought 911 calls would be for important matters but instead, people call from where there is a problem in their lives. Though I do believe there are hotlines in place already such as 311.
Hi! I do agree that reporting non-emergency things shouldn’t be directed towards the 911 call center, because it is not a life or death situation. Some people may not see it that way, because it makes it difficult to see beyond the use of 911, when it’s available at all times.
I agree with you. I don’t think people understand this and its sad because we don’t know who is in trouble at the moment. A minute is too long and long enough to be too late.
Yes I agree with you. Homeless people already have no where to go. Unless they are bothering that you feel threat than okay. I seen people to scared to share a subway cart with them which I understand but people should be able to move to others carts if possible.
Hello Quetzalcoatl, regarding the 911 calls, I agree with you. I as well believed that 911 calls were for serious emergencies, but instead, people dial 911 because they have a crisis with their life and don’t really know how to handle it.
Hello Quetzalcoatl,
Police aren’t trained to take care of social issues, they are trained to maintain peace and order.
Hi Quetza,
After reading your post, I agree with you. Most of the calls aren’t crime-related, and those situations should be handle by other agencies or people. I agree with you when you said that there should be a hotline that provide many services for those in need. For instance, calling the police when there is a homeless person should not be right thing to do, there should be a hotline to call where someone would help that individual get shelter. This would offer a better service to the person in need, and it would stop wasting police’s time.
In the reading, it is said that some communities often call 911 for unrelated crimes. Most of the time police will not answer to crimes such as gunfire, murder, rape, robbery, and etc. Police would only answer to mostly noise complaints, people being drunk and such things. In the reading, it states they can better address non-emergency calls instead of calling the police by placing a system in. It states in the reading, “The Tucson Police Department (TPD) has pioneered initiatives to expand its menu of alternative responses for dealing with large calls for service volumes” (Neusteter, Mapolski, Khogali, and O’Toole 31). This seems like a very smart idea, however, I feel like it would not work. We have something like that placed already I believe and it’s 311. People do not use 311 as the first option for complaints but instead, they would use 911. Like in the reading people do not really use 911 for emergencies anymore I feel like but for petty things. 911 calls are getting less and less important, which delay calls and response for important things.
A 911 operator has a difficult job, but what could make it difficult for law enforcement is when communities make calls that are not considered emergencies. When a person calls 911 for someone parked in their driveaway, they could just call a 24 hour towing company, if someone needs assistance with a pet they should contact animal control. The problem with non-emergency calls could delay the response time for an actual emergency. Another example for reporting non-emergency would be reporting a suspect that isn’t on the scene by directly contacting the precinct and having your information taken or walking into the precinct.
I agree some 911 operators shouldn’t be called in some situations.
Hello Elaine,
I agree that 911 operators have a difficult job, this is why people should be referred to 211, 311, and Crisis hotlines.
In the reading it explains how 911 is literally called for everything and when I mean everything, it could be a none emergency call. People call the cops as they are expect them to help with everything even down to questions which is sad because people who really need help need to get through that call. Now and days everything is posted online that people have questions on such as NYC GOV and even Twitter to check on daily news updates. If they need help with something or don’t have knowledge of smartphones, that’s okay because we also have something call 311 which literally answers questions to anything. They can also help you find proper assistance on the situation they may be in. So again, people need to be able to use the smartphone which almost everyone has, and if not call 311 to make sure real help gets through to those really in need. I think people needs to understand 911 can’t help them with non urgent problems, if they continue to do so a life may not be saved. Another reason why cops respond to emergencies hours later due to an amount of calls they receive for little things. They won’t take citizens serious.
Upon reading this article, I realize that the vast majority of 911 calls are unrelated to criminal activity. The majority of them are about everyday issues that should be handled without the intervention of cops. For example noise complaints, public disruptions, and etc.. There should other hotlines, in my opinion, that should offer a variety of services to people in need. There should be a different hotline for each category that 911 gets called for. Everyone should read this article, so that we all can come together to realise that we should only call 911 if it is a life or death condition. Also if a crime has taken place and one doesn’t know what to do.
I agree with your response. I also believe that there should be different hotlines that people can call regarding any issue. This will be more easier for call operators and if there is an actual emergency the person will get help right away.
Overall they are just calling for unrelated crimes and wasting time. This wastes the operator’s time and it’s preventing someone’s life from being saved through the phone. I believe it was mentioned in class where some kid called for the operator to help him or her with homework, which blows my mind because you don’t know what happening some where else someone can be in danger.
The analysis on the 911 system reveals that people call for non-emergency situations. “Police spend an inordinate amount of time responding to 911 calls for service, even though most of these calls are unrelated to crimes in progress. Many are for quality-of-life issues like noise, blocked driveways, or public intoxication. Others are for problems like drug abuse,
homelessness, or mental health crises that would be better resolved with community-based treatment or other resources—not a criminal justice response”. Law enforcement officers are trained to main peace and order. They aren’t trained to help with social issues, this is why we have social workers, doctors, therapists, and many more. 911 alternatives are
The 211 services, 311, and the Crisis hotlines.
Hey Sabbir
Good response and I agreed with you that police officer is not trained for some social issues and there are alternatives like you mention 311 or 211 I think the city should let the community that 911 is not for everything and have different numbers that can call.
Hello Sabbir, I completely agree with you because people dials 911 for small causes instead of serious ones, officers aren’t trained to deal with social issues. We have other services like you mentioned that can help or deal with minor issues so if people starts calling them instead of 911 then it will be helpful for them.
The analysis of the 911 system reveals that the in-need communities the majority of the time calls the 911 for non-crime matters. According to the article “Police spend an inordinate amount of time responding to 911 calls for service, even though most of these calls are unrelated to crimes in progress. Many are for quality-of-life issues like noise, blocked driveways, or public intoxication. Others are for problems like drug abuse, homelessness, or mental health crises that would be better resolved with community-based treatment or
other resources—not a criminal justice response”. In other words, the police see themselves responding to less serious situations, where police intervention aren’t necessary, instead of responding to crimes in progress. In addition to wasting police’s time, assisting situations unrelated to crime might also cause the police not to respond to ACTUAL crimes that are happening at the same time that they’re responding to the unrelated situation. Alternative suggestions given in the report where people can contact to get assistance instead of contacting 911 were: calling 211 for community health and human service resources, or calling 311 for non-emergency public services such as noise, potholes, graffiti, etc. People usually are not informed about not contacting 911 when the situation is not related to a crime. For this matter, people should be educated about it and they should have access and knowledge to the services offer depending on their issue.
Hey Ruth
Great response and yeah police officer see themselves responding to not serious situations and yes you right about police are wasting their time on these not serious situations and they should actual crimes that are happening. I agreed with you that people usually are not informed about not contacting 911 when the situation is not related to a crime.
I agree with your response. When people call 911 for non- emergency situations especially if it occurs usually , the police will know already that the problem is not as serious as the caller believes it is. If a real – serious emergency does occur the police will not arrive on time or not take it seriously , due to these actions from 911 callers.
Hey I agree that we need to be educated and have access to these other services and hotlines. Like I stated in a previous comment I did not even know we had a 211. It is a bit fustrating to know most complaints officers respond to are things like noise complaints when they can be worried about a more serious issue
you right police sometimes see themselves as wasting of times because they use to get call that is not important that’s why the state governor and mayor should make sure 911 is something serious because one day police should be responding to a serious crime but if they get minor call all time even if they get serious call they will not take their position serious
After reading the article it was revealed that most 911 are not serious emergency situations. This is disappointing because if someone calls 911 especially the police it has to be about a threatening situation. Due to this polices take longer to arrive in an actual crime scene as it occurs . In the article it was mentioned that’ Police spend an inordinate amount of time responding to 911 calls for service, even though most of these calls are unrelated to crimes in progress. Many are for quality-of-life issues like noise, blocked driveways, or public intoxication. Others are for problems like drug abuse, homelessness, or mental health crises that would be better resolved with community-based treatment or other resources—not a criminal justice response. But even when the underlying problem is minor or not criminal in nature, police often respond to service requests with the tool that is most familiar and expedient for them to deploy: enforcement. All of this exhausts police resources and exposes countless people to avoidable criminal justice system contacts. And managing this large call volume also poses operational challenges for police agencies.” I believe that there should be more hotlines available if people want to report any other non- serious situations and people should become more aware of their calls.
I agree with you that police take longer arrive at a crime scene or complaint because they used to arrive at a scene that they use to be call and when they get there they will see no urgent crimes. this can make police to take matter lights even when things is urgent because police might think that people are exaggerating like usual
A large amount of calls received by 911 operators are due to unrelated crimes in progress resulting to an exhaust of police resources. Although the issues may be minor or non criminal , police respond to the service request with the most familiar resources. A few to mention which are unrelated crime calls quality of life issues such as noises, blocked driveways or public intoxications. The others are drug abuse, homelessness or mental health issues . These issues are better to be resolved by the communities rather than criminal justice response therefore police resources can be efficiently and targets can be based on crime in progress reports made to 911. The public should be further educated as of the effects of calling 911 for non related crimes and also educating them on the alternative numbers that should be called in response to the non criminal crimes states above.
After reading the analysis of the 911 system it is revealed that the majority of the time 911 calls are for non-crime matters. Police waste a lot of time by answering and responding to calls that are daily life problems and could be resolved without the presence of police officers.
A lot of people believe that if they call 911 they will help faster and some don’t even know about other services besides 911, in total people need to be educated. In the analysis it says that, “Many are for quality-of-life issues like noise, blocked driveways, or public intoxication. Others are for problems like drug abuse, homelessness, or mental health crises that would be better resolved with community-based treatment or other resources—not a criminal justice response.” These issues could be solved if people called 211, 311, or hotlines for community health, human service resources, and non-emergency public instead of 911 so they can be prepared for real crime when it occurs. When it comes to dealing with a person who is not mentally stable, they should call a hotline or 211 because police aren’t trained to handle mentally ill people then they will get backlash since they didn’t know what to do. Officers are there to make sure people are safe in the streets and home by not committing crime, they are trained to deal with potholes, noise, graffiti, and etc. We need to work with them so they can work with us, we just cannot waste their time or cause a delay to a serious crime that needs more help than a personal life problem or small issue, we can solve and live a life without bothering them. People protest about how officers are bad and don’t do justice but the minute something small happens they are the first to dial 911.
I agree that we need other hotlines like you stated. I did not even know we had a 211, I think we have hotlines are everything it is just the lack of knowledge the people know about these hotlines.
Most of the calls made to 911 are unrelated crimes like noise complaints, blocked driveaways ore public intoxications. Some are issues like drug abuse or mental health. When 911 operaters are being called about unrelated crime matters this stops them from helping someone in need. I feel as their should be other systems/hotlines to help out, like I know we have 311 but how much do they really help? It is like people rely on police officers to resolve minor incidents rather than big issues. The people need to be educated on the proper contact systems. Officers often waste their time worrying about minor offenses.
Based on the report, the communities needs vary but unfortunately the 911 phone line gets overwhelmed with non emergency situations. For example noise complaints, shoplifting or even in todays world where people call 911 on a person of color for doing something they believe is illegal. In the report there are new alternatives that are being presented to avoid this problem that affects the 911 phone line as well as the police since they can’t assist to every single place in a quick response time. Having to give priority to the most important emergency. One alternative to help ease the workload is to create a separate unit of nonsworn personnel to handle calls for service incidents like shoplifting with evidence, disorderly children, minor traffic collisions and found property. Another option is to create a medical, fire or police department internet reporting tool. Lastly the option of eliminating the service for certain situations and transferring them to an appropriate agency. For example 911 won’t handle a call for barking dogs instead it will transfer the call to animal control or if a car is stalled but doesn’t pose a hazard and not blocking traffic, it won’t be handled by 911. In my opinion these alternatives are great because it takes the workload off 911 who has to answer to many different types of situations and the police, firefighters or medics can’t assist to all these calls. This leaves for only true emergency calls to be handled and that avoids having to give a priority to a call like the system that is in use right now. Everyone will able to have their issues addressed.
This reading is so accurate, 911 was meant to respond to urgent that related to crimes. such as murder, rape and paramedics, but now people call 911 on everything even on small stuff such as argument between people or community issues such as loud music into neighborhoods. we see also little kids messing up with 911 call because they need help with homework assignments. we seen also adult calling 911 because there Is rat in the house. this is significant because if police stations get call on everything one day they will get serious call and they will not care that much or making it serious because they will think is call that they use to get as usual.