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I don’t know, I just see so many problems that will happen and there’s probably many more that haven’t even crossed my mind.
The 911 issue is partially case and point. In my hometown, where this service is available if you dial 911 from a land line you get the local county sheriffs department, which is 30 miles away, who will dispatch the appropriate emergency services. If you call from a cell phone you get one of two options (unless you are a cellcom customer in which case it is *something). If you are in the north side of town you will get the state police dispatcher located in a town 110 miles from that location. Most of them haven’t even heard of this town so you have to tell them to notify the local county sheriff’s department because the local state police post was closed due to budget cuts. If you are in the south part of town you get the county sheriff’s department in a neighboring state located about 60 miles from your location.
There have been many political and economic issues about the 911 service that come into play when there are precious few minutes to spare. In an emergency it is very difficult to remain calm and explain where you are in relation to whoever answers. I just don’t see a child being able to do this when I had a difficult time doing it as a grown adult fully aware of what was going to happen. I happened to be in the south side of town and had to deal with interstate issues. I was lucky, since my father worked for the sheriff’s department for 20 years, I knew the direct number by heart and when the 911 operator was too obtuse to give me the appropriate service I hung up and called them directly.
The main full time residents of my hometown are widows. If there was a Jitterbug type service available for these older women who live on their own I’d be totally on board. If there was some type of screening other than economic I’d support it, provided that they were still able to maintain a land line service in the home if more than one person lives there. If you can show an actual need for it I fully support it being available to you. I think the way the program is set up right now there are more people that will be harmed than helped.
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I've been married for 24 years and have four wonderful children.
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