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There is no global rule about when 911 vs a non-emergency number is correct. I've lived in a city where 911 is the only way to reach police dispatch, and police
by dangrossman 4y ago
There is no global rule about when 911 vs a non-emergency number is correct. I've lived in a city where 911 is the only way to reach police dispatch, and police dispatch is the only way to get a police report taken, even if it's just for insurance reasons the day after a fire or something. I learned this by calling the city's non-emergency line, and they told me to call 911. What's the non-emergency line for then? Stuff like reporting a pothole on your street, a dangerous building that needs inspection, illegal dumping, a traffic signal's out, etc.
- schrodinger 4y agoIn NY you can call your local precinct directly for that kind of thing.
- cge 4y agoCities can be completely inconsistent on this. At a building in a mid-sized city in California, we had the police department advise us to call their non-emergency number for emergencies and let the dispatcher know that we actually had an emergency, because this would reach the department directly, whereas calling 911 would usually reach the CHP, and there were apparently problems with communication between the CHP and the department. They said that their non-emergency line reached the same dispatchers that 911 calls routed to the department would reach.
- toast0 4y ago> I've lived in a city where 911 is the only way to reach police dispatch My current city is like this, but more. If you need to reach a detective to return a call, you need to call 911 and ask to be transferred. Otoh, CenturyLink has broken 911 service for days a couple times since I moved here; an alternate number for the county has been provided, which will probably work for emergencies, but maybe not for returning calls.