People's pathetic remarks over some1's unwittingly unlawfull mistake..

911 is for emergency calls only, you don't call for any other reason, no exceptions.

Every Law Enforcement Agency has a non-emergency number, she should have looked it up and made her request known. Tying up 911 for non emergencies is breaking the law. I have arrested people for the very same thing, only we would ticket and release them. It is usually a $500.00 minimum fine. Some agencies have different policies on handling these situations, unfortunately this woman found out the hard way.

And herein lies the answer to why I am no longer a Police Officer. It is situations just like this one that gave me a sour outlook for the job. Police get an a nal exam for everything they do or say. Why anyone would want the job escapes my reasoning.

BTW, My Brother, Son and Nephew are in Law Enforcement.

FBI, And two high crime city Cops.

I still feel bad for that woman, thank goodness I'm wise enough not to make that same mistake.

Guy – I’m curious, at the risk of hijacking the thread for a moment. If you had received that exact call, what would your instinct be? Would it be that it was a foolish person? Or that it was a disturbed person crying out for help? Or an entirely different thought?

All,

lol

Niiiiice! If I didn't loathe the majority of the planet's inhabitants and a good few laws, then I would love to be a police officer. I've been told many times over the years that I have the right attitude and mentality etc for it, although, I'd imagine most of you now would scoff at the idea. I think my place is elsewhere though.

MochaFrapPlz, your post made me laugh. Hah.

lol!

AAAAA, I think you might be missing the point with the comments regarding "unfair", I believe the notion was that that with the mentioned cicumstances and the law in place was/is "unfair", as opposed to the arrest of the said law.

Breaking the law is wrong. All laws are (apparently) set for a reason, however "unfair", extreme or unjust they may appear to be. I do not condone breaking the law. I too, have done many stupid things in my life, and will surely do more until my time is also at an end.

As rebellious and bitterly hateful as I am, I do try to respect and appreciate the laws; it doesn't mean I have to like it. However, I will verbally, respectively and morally, go against it.

Regards,
Akuma

Quote:

Originally Posted by MochaFrapPlz This reminds me - I dialed 911 while driving once because I needed to call the local state police dept and I wasn't even in my hometown so wouldn't have had the number.. and I tried dialing 411 first but you end up talking to a computer. So I called 911.. They answer the phone saying "911, is this an emergency?" and I apologized and said no but I needed to contact the local police dept and explained 411 had me talking to a computer and giving me the wrong number..The guy just kind of scoffed and said that "it's allright" but he needed to clarify that it wasn't a medical emergency.. and just gave me the number I needed.

I just wanted to clarify on this post - I reread that and it sounds like I just needed the state police for a general reason.. it was something urgent where the cops needed to be notified and send someone right away but it wasn't like a medical emergency.

Also..the whole 411 thing was confusing. The 911 person even told me that 411 should have been able to give me the number. But how does that work if you weren't from the area and wern't even sure what town you were in and needed the police? I was in a familiar area and was surprised that the State Police I needed to call was 4 cities over..especially when I was less than 10 minutes from a police department.

I have done that myself Mocha. There are so many little villages and communities outside of Green Bay I really don’t know who has jurisdiction. I’ve been on the freeway with someone that was driving extremely dangerously. The jeep nearly forced us off the road weaving in and out of traffic and did force a car in front of me off. Whether this dictates a true emergency I don’t know, but I called and said this is X, I’m driving southbound on X just past exit X, and there is a dark green jeep driving very recklessly. I don’t believe that is an abuse of 911, but I could be wrong.

What bothers me the most is people like to ridicule about other people's stupidity especially when it comes to breaking laws, that was the point I was mostly making. In general innocent people make idiotic mistakes that costs them big time plus get ridiculed by other people. That's the type of things that really bugs me the most. IMO if innocent people are ridiculed b/c of their stupidity, I think it' s cruel..

Yeah, exactly. I don't see how it could be an abuse of 911 if something is a safety issue and you are preventing an emergency. Why would you want to wait until the Jeep kills someone before calling? At least you weren't told to dial another number like I was.

I remember seeing a sign on a major interstate that said to dial *something to report a drunk driver... They need an easy number like that to get in touch with the local police depending on your location. Maybe that exists in some places but I'm not aware of anything like that here.

Here in Ottawa, seeing someone driving recklessly is an emergency. There are signs everywhere telling people to call 911 if they see reckless driving or drunk driving.

It does exist here IF you have the same cell phone carrier as the police department, and the *# for this village’s police department is different from the next, which is still different from the Sheriff’s department etc.

This is a frustrating issue that I brought up in another thread about Lifeline now offering cell phones. The Lifeline carrier is not the same as out local police department so the * # is out and if you call 911, depending upon which tower you hit, you’re going to get a dispatcher that has NO idea where the heck you are. In the northern part of town, if you dial 911 from a cell phone you’re going to get the State Police dispatcher from another state; that is an extremely frustrating call let me tell you!

Someone mentioned the equipment that the dispatchers have at their disposal, I don’t believe that the dispatchers receiving cell calls have it, or perhaps they don’t know how to use it. When I had to make the call requesting assistance it was like they were trying to find us on a regular old street map. And there have been times when callers have gotten busy signals dialing 911 with a land line. I haven’t personally, but it is one of the issues that is brought up during elections and millage arguments.

PS - I'm sorry for that past vs. passed error in my last post. :-(

lololol..... poor lady, she had it coming tho xD

Ok, here is the motto for 911 "To stop a crime or save a life, dial 911." it is a crime to drive drunk and you could save a life by calling. Reckless driving call 911. Anything that can be life threatening to self or another is 911. It is not because you think the cop is cute, or they forgot fries in your happy meal, or your house has an over flowing toilet.

If I would have got that call, I would have responded and after a quick assessment of the caller, Cops have a way of getting to the mindset real fast, I would have either issued a citation for "willful misuse of the emergency response system" with the minimum $500.00 fine, and those fines stick because we have the recording, or I would have 10-99ed it, which is a code for a "mentally disturbed person acting out" and gave the offender a stern warning and left. If I though it was anything more, like a cry for help it would have been revealed in the initial assessment and I would have called for transport to the hospital for evaluation, then upon reading the resulting report from the hospital, either 10-99ed it or referred it to county for further action.

I called 911 once to report a panther wandering into a residental area one evening. It was a real emergency as I didnt know how to contact the police or animal control and was afraid some kids playing may be in danger. 911 would not give me the # for the police dept and kept telling me I must have just mistaken it for a large dog. I told the dispatcher the only way I could have mistaken a panther for a very large dog was if that dog was dressed up as a panther. She had the nerve to hang up on me. I was horrified. I really did see a panther, it crossed the street right in front of my car, and I dont drink!!! She must have thought I was out of my mind. This does not really pertain to this post, but I thought I'd share anyway. Im surprised they didnt arrest me, if they thought I was wasting their time or making it up.

Ohhh Ruffy--I only came into this thread cause I saw you'd posted-----I didn't think you'd get involved anymore than I wanted to (as stated in my only post on this thread)--sooo glad I looked---Laughing hard, out loud now--love it!!!!!

Thanks sooo much!!!!!----------------------theo

Sunset -L----to quote Forrest Gump "Stupid is as stupid does."

My what drama you have here!!!--I'm going away now--poof............

That reminds me of a funny story Ruffy. We live in Wisconsin, our winters are very cold. A couple of years ago, there was a mad search for a man’s escaped Kangaroo. It was bitterly cold and there was a nasty storm coming.

So the news breaks into programming to announce this missing kangaroo. Several hours later, the news broke into programming to announce that there was a kangaroo found in a farmer’s barn. Whew, poor bugger is safe. About an hour later the news broke into programming again, the found kangaroo was NOT the missing kangaroo so they’re now looking for ANOTHER kangaroo owner AND the missing kangaroo. Who knew there were so many kangaroos running around loose in Northern Wisconsin?

wow---AAAAA---how'd a kangaroo get into Wisconsin???

Laughing---that's really got me belly laughing--ya had me going there---thanks--

(gullible theo--I used to think that every time they broke a bat on a baseball game on TV--it cost $50,000.00; and I'd cry---my EX used to do it all the time--)

only excuse is I'm half "dumb Swede"---thanks so ooo much!!!

Well the first guy had a petting zoo with a permit or whatever to have the kangaroo. They assume that the second one was owned illegally because the owner never came forward (to my knowledge). It was SO funny, the local news anchor is SO serious and he doesn’t seem to have a sense of humor at all. For several days he had to say “this is not a joke, anyone with information about the owner second kangaroo please call the tip line.” It was so hilarious to watch him rely this “breaking” news.

First missing kangaroo, then found kangaroo, then kangaroo still missing but searching for owner of second kangaroo.

True story.

About second kangaroo.
http://www.godlikeproductions.com/fo...ssage84879/pg1

(((Theo))) I really tried to resist responding, honest!!! I held out for as long as I possibly could. Youre posts always make me laugh!!! ((AAAAA))) Great kangaroo story. I can just picture that reporter, with the deep, serious mono toned voice, HAHAHAHAH!!!!.

And this is what creates a complete lack of faith and respect for the system. The only way it is remotely acceptable for her to hang up on you is if she thinks you are pranking the 911 system. If she is under that assumption, then by most everyones perspective here, you need to be arrested.

That the law is applied so arbitrarily is what causes the most consternation for me. You never hear another word about it even though the lady is convinced you were wasting their time or making it up - while another person is arrested for wasting their time.

I'm glad you weren't arrested, especially because you didn't do anything wrong,

Thank you!! (((AkAngel))) My thoughts exactly, although my response to her does crack me up to this day, but only came out of desperation after she kept trying to convince me I only saw a dog. I did make it very clear to her that it was not a joke. I managed to find a number to animal control via 411 but had to leave a message on a machine. Tried to find a police cruiser but could not spot one, and then tried to find the wild cat myself but it was no where to be seen. Could have been in a tree for all I knew. Probably someones pet, as it didnt seem scared at all but I wasnt about to call, "Here Kitty, Kitty!!"....... Imagine if the morning news stated "Someone killed by wild panther in residential area." What would that dispatcher have done then? Is it possible to erase a 911 call and pretend it never existed? I would have happily handcuffed myself and driven myself to the jail, if I thought it would save someones life...... Excluding this one exception, Ive always found 911 emergency services to be very helpful, as Im a nurse and work with them all the time.

Theodora, IMO, it's a discussion, or a debate, if you prefer.

Stupidity is not excuse for putting others in danger... which you clearly do with misusing the 911 line. That's not a rocket science to figure this out. It's not like she didn't know she's breaking the law.

sorry, I have hard time feeling sorry for people who do stupid things. I will add my obligatory remark - and these people get to vote. Yes, that is what scares me.