PistolWhipt

So, I'm just sitting here in my motel room minding my own business, drinking a beer & watching youtube videos on my laptop (which is conveniently sitting on my lap) .... when my work cellphone starts ringing in my pocket. It's way past 10:30 pm so I know it's noone from work.

It was the local 911 operator asking if I had an emergency. Apparently the corner of the computer hit enough buttons on my phone to unlock it and dial 08 to get them on the line. They had been listening to the soundtrack from the video I was watching for a few minutes before they called me back.

Alrighty then ... now I feel like a dork in El Paso too !!!

Ya'll have a good un .... I'm going to bed !!

PISTOL

Chrisreyn

and let me guess, they heard you open teh "Bear Attack" email?????

you can thank Mike for that one BTW

PistolWhipt

Thank God NO .... they wouldn't have been able to stop laughing long enough to respond !! hahahaha

PISTOL

Jeff in TD

The GF is a 911 Dispatcher. They get "pocket calls" all the time, sometimes interrupting them when they are trying to send a medic or give CPR instructions over the phone. Smaller dispatch centers sometimes only have one or two people, and they don't let 911 ring.

Kind of an unintended consequence of the 1 touch emergency button, that maybe cell phone makers could have predicted.

Redleg

Actually the "lock" feature doesn't function for a 911 call. You still need to keep it secure..... I know, but I didn't build them....

74dart

Thats why I turn off the one button 911 dial feature on all of my phones.

2500Ram

But every phone I've had even with the key pad locked you can still dial 911 send. Even roaming or area's your phone doesn't work. Years ago I had a cell phone (before national plans) I was visiting New York City, my phone couldn't be called or make calles. On the Lincoln bridge just heading into Jersey we witnessed a bad car accedent, minivan with family, 24' moving truck and a stalled Ferrari in the right lane that caused the entire thing. Long story short I pulled out my cell and got right through to the 911 operator. I don't know how but with 4 or 5 lanes of blocked traffic the EMS and wrecker were through traffic and on the scene within 5 minutes. Everyone was fine.

Burpl

I was a 911 dispatcher for 17 years and have answered hundreds of pocket calls sometimes they were hilarious ...som of them were ummm not so funny and a bit graphic (dats all Im gonna say about that) . They were always a pain with the older style phones.

PistolWhipt

Glad to know that I am not the only one who has done this ...

Next question ..... how do they know where to send the police when the call is made from a cell phone ?? I could be anywhere !!!

PISTOL

HayHauler1

They can tell what cell tower you are closest to (communicating with) and then triangulate your signal from 3 or more towers...
edit: It's a signal strength kind of thing.
Hay

2500Ram

And very vague, they will not get an address but a vague latitude and longitude from the towers. Hence the world isn't using VOIP yet. If your in an emergency and using a cell phone I hope you can give your address. A land line is locked in with ANI http://searchcrm.techtarget.com/sDef...213775,00.htmland until VOIP can somehow reproduce ANI I will always have a land line. But I work for a phone company so I'll always have whatever they offer.

74dart

Dosent alot of the newer phones have a built in gps for that purpose.

1-2-3

Here at work, like everywhere else, you dial a 9 to get an outside line. We also have many extensions that start with 11. You can see where this ends up. At first it was several times a day. Now maybe one or two accidents a week.

Redleg

What Hay Hauler is describing is Phase I, which includes caller I.D. FYI, the ATT conglomeration just got to that level. Phase II is GPS, suppose to be within 300 meters, but not always. There are alot of phones out there still at phase 0, which may or may not provide caller I.D., definitely no tower info. Federal law says ALL cell phones will have 911 acess and 911 cannot be blocked out. We can accept phase II here, but not all companies are there, and not all areas are capable yet. Pistol, you always need to be ready to verify your location. Worse case, we can "usually" contact the provider if the service is current, and check your home first and see if anybody there knew your whereabouts. Generally in a busy area, even if you don't call, many others have already called something in for you. Really though, they should modify the law to cancel 911 service after the phone has been out of service for awhile. Those phones cause more problems with untraceable prank calls, from lost/stolen and phones given to kids as toys. I went to cell and stopped my landline service, but 911 still doesn't function on it anyway. Another good reason to keep an eye on your phone... if I get a 911 cal from someone and I can hear them safely in the background, I'll hang up call it back and ask them what their emergency was. A lot of times the phone gets bumped and answers without their knowledge, then it'll get put on hold, until they hang up or bump it to shut it off. Bye-bye minutes for that month...

Redleg

One more thing a lot of people seem to get confused over. Ideally the phone goes to the nearest tower for servfice in your current location. We'll get calls from people calling on behalf of somebody else in their home town across the country somewhere. 911 calls take priority on the tower over regular calls and will bump the circuits. If there is a high volume of 911 calls, the circuit will go on hold, but continue the ring to the caller. When a line is open, the operator may answer that call on the first or second ring, but the caller will think they've been listening to it ring for 15 minutes. Calls may even get bumped to an outlying tower to get the line answered, allbeit the wrong agency. Also, don't dial # or * first or you'll be bumped to no-mans land. When the call is answered, that circuit is tied up until the caller is disconnected, even if transferred somewhere else. Some places will process ALL calls on 911 to save money or build stats, with us, if it's not an emergency, the call gets ended.