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I founded and ran a VoIP 9-1-1 company for a few years. 911 is run and financed at the very local level. There's around 9000 PSAPs (public safety answering poin

I founded and ran a VoIP 9-1-1 company for a few years. 911 is run and financed at the very local level. There's around 9000 PSAPs (public safety answering points) in the US, most of them have a large amount of leeway in doing their own thing. (Some states have better state-level coordination.) It's a not-excellently-paid job that is extremely stressful. It's extremely traumatic to hear someone dying, begging you for their life, and not being able to help (if, say, the location info fails and they don't know where they are). Add in low funding, and there can be long waits. Location info sometimes fails, so it's ALWAYS a good idea to confirm location. In Canada an operator failed to do so, dispatched medical aid to the wrong location, and a kid died. As to poor response in your experiments, I don't think that accurately represents the situation for everyone. It heavily depends on where you are and how busy they are. Certainly many people get very fast response times. 911 saves a huge amount of lives every year. I've been in other countries that really don't have 9-1-1. First thing you notice is that every house is a mini-fortress. In Guatemala, I have a 24/7 rotation of guards, at least 4 all time. Because if an attack isn't prevented, there's going to be no helpful response. 911 is an amazing service and the lack of it is acutely noticed.

ec109695 10y ago
Could you and your guantamllan neighbors cooperate to share those guards amongst several houses? You could even create an easy to remember phone number ;) Kidding aside, thank you for the thoughtful post.
- rahimnathwani 10y ago
  What you're describing is a gated community. Those exist in Guatemala.
  - wnoise 10y ago
    You can share guards with a neighbor even without being behind the same fence. What he's describing is merely a community.
    - MichaelGG 10y ago
      Sure, but without a wall and entry point it becomes much more difficult to monitor people in and out. Foot and car traffic gets scanned and must be buzzed into the area. Taxis or anything suspicious are forced to open the trunk and get a quick security check on exit (avoid kidnapping/theft). I've lived in loosely-gated communities, and the sense of security is just far less. Here I don't mind walking around at 2am -- there's simply zero crime inside the area. I don't even lock my doors sometimes. (There's cameras covering every part of the community.) We have about 400 houses, each paying about $30 a month for security and commons/park maintenance. A guard makes $400 a month.
      - partisan 10y ago
        What's the upside to living in Guatemala? I ask this as a first generation American and as someone who is considering leaving the states for a while.
        MichaelGG 10y ago
        Not much. I'm here with my girls due to immigration stuff we need to sort out (my wife's from here). It's a nice place to visit. Geography is great. But the constant brokenness of everything just wears you down. The pervasive violence also just adds a pall over everything. I think a lot of people just sort of give up on the place -- things don't really change. It's not just corrupt (who cares if someone takes money), it's just sheer incompetence all around. I mean this at every single level. From government, to doctors, to people building basic structures with no planning/engineering. I truly believe countries like these only have hope if a serious country comes in an runs the place.

ec109695 10y ago

Could you and your guantamllan neighbors cooperate to share those guards amongst several houses? You could even create an easy to remember phone number ;) Kidding aside, thank you for the thoughtful post.

rahimnathwani 10y ago
What you're describing is a gated community. Those exist in Guatemala.
- wnoise 10y ago
  You can share guards with a neighbor even without being behind the same fence. What he's describing is merely a community.
  - MichaelGG 10y ago
    Sure, but without a wall and entry point it becomes much more difficult to monitor people in and out. Foot and car traffic gets scanned and must be buzzed into the area. Taxis or anything suspicious are forced to open the trunk and get a quick security check on exit (avoid kidnapping/theft). I've lived in loosely-gated communities, and the sense of security is just far less. Here I don't mind walking around at 2am -- there's simply zero crime inside the area. I don't even lock my doors sometimes. (There's cameras covering every part of the community.) We have about 400 houses, each paying about $30 a month for security and commons/park maintenance. A guard makes $400 a month.
    - partisan 10y ago
      What's the upside to living in Guatemala? I ask this as a first generation American and as someone who is considering leaving the states for a while.
      - MichaelGG 10y ago
        Not much. I'm here with my girls due to immigration stuff we need to sort out (my wife's from here). It's a nice place to visit. Geography is great. But the constant brokenness of everything just wears you down. The pervasive violence also just adds a pall over everything. I think a lot of people just sort of give up on the place -- things don't really change. It's not just corrupt (who cares if someone takes money), it's just sheer incompetence all around. I mean this at every single level. From government, to doctors, to people building basic structures with no planning/engineering. I truly believe countries like these only have hope if a serious country comes in an runs the place.