What is 9-1-1 today? Looking at the communities served

9-1-1 is a number that, I think it’s safe to say, all citizens across the US are familiar with. From senior citizens to small children, those three digits are what you dial if you have an emergency.

Jessica Olson is the Community Marketing Manager at Smart911. Jessica works with each community as well as with partner and advocacy groups to create awareness of Smart911.   

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Since the first 9-1-1 call was made in 1968, 9-1-1 functionality has been universal in that dialing these 3 digits from any phone immediately connects you to an emergency dispatcher who asks “9-1-1 what is your emergency” and then can assist you by sending Police, Fire or Ems to your location based on the nature of your emergency.

Simple right? Well a lot has changed since 1968. 

Landlines which automatically have home addresses linked to them are slowly disappearing, everything is mobile, and locating an incoming 9-1-1 call is becoming increasingly more difficult.  Not only that, but emergency responders have more technology available to them, from smart phones to Wifi accessible laptops in their vehicles, these teams have the ability to be given much more information much faster in order to assist people.  So how do they do that?

Well let’s look at who 9-1-1 assists.    

The average citizen with minimal or no medical conditions or concerns probably doesn’t pay much attention to 9-1-1 during the course of their day.  They do however, know that 9-1-1 will be there for them if they are in a car accident, have a house fire, their child goes missing or someone breaks into their home.  Some people may never need to dial 9-1-1, but they know if they need to, they can. 

What about those citizens who have a health condition, an allergy, mobility limitations or other concerns which make them very aware that they may have to dial 9-1-1 at any time of any day.  These are citizens whose first priority is to ensure that they are prepared in any situation.  This can mean that they take various measures from wearing a medical alert bracelet, to always having a list of medications and emergency contact names and numbers on them, to carrying an Epi Pen or registering with their local emergency management agencies.  How does emergency response for these individuals vary from the average citizen with no medical concerns? 

The FCC recently conducted a survey on Emergency Calling for Persons with Disabilities (July, 2011) to help understand the needs of these individuals and how 9-1-1 can adapt to better serve them.  This is a goal that Smart911 works towards every day.  By partnering with local and national advocacy and community groups, we hope to better understand these needs and the ways in which creating a safety profile with Smart911 can enable the communication of these details to the first responders so they can assist any citizen faster and more effectively. 

The purpose of this blog is to share, communicate and foster an environment of education on the various medical conditions and rescue needs of individuals across the country.  How do people who are Deaf or Hard of Hearing dial 9-1-1?  What does someone do when they are having an allergic reaction that will render them unconscious and unable to communicate?  How do you get pictures and information on a family member with Alzheimer’s who has wandered to police quickly?  We will feature content from various members of advocacy and functional needs groups from across the country to speak on these topics.  We’ll also include insights from members of our team as well as relevant news from the 9-1-1 industry.  We invite you to share this information, offer comments and feedback and reach out to us if you would like to participate.