About 911
HOW OUR 911 EMERGENCY RESPONSE SYSTEM WORKS
About 911 HOW OUR 911 EMERGENCY RESPONSE SYSTEM WORKS |
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When you dial 911, help usually arrives within minutes. But have you ever really thought about how that help magically gets there? When you dial into the 911 Emergency Response System your call goes directly to the 911 County Dispatcher, in our case to Freehold. From there, the call is immediately dispatched to the local municipality from where the call originated. The first person to arrive on the scene of an emergency situation is known as a First Responder (which is usually a Police Officer, First-Aider or EMT). He or she is there for you as a result of an extremely intricate, 24-hour system of networking protocol from the moment the 911 Dispatcher receives your call for help, until that help arrives. The minute your call is received, and the nature your emergency and location have been determined, the call is immediately put out into the air waves and picked up by the appropriate Municipal Emergency Response Personnel who are constantly monitoring these calls. Within moments, pagers are activated, phones ring, lights flash, whistles go off and a First Responder is dispatched to the scene to assess and treat your most immediate needs. Meantime, the second wave of Emergency Responders (First-Aid Squad and MONOC) is already on its way to back-up the First Responder. To a person in distress--those moments can seem like hours and Emergency Response personnel are keenly aware of the difference those few minutes can make. Additionally, the 911 Operator has a Caller ID system that views your name, phone number and address, bypassing any caller ID privacy blocks you may have put on your phone. This has several distinct advantages. If you find yourself in an emergency situation where you are in unfamiliar territory or may even be too upset to have the presence of mind to think where you are calling from--rest assured, the 911 Operator already knows. Second, if you happen to be alone and in distress and are unable to do anything but dial 911, you do not even have to speak and it doesn't matter if the phone receiver is left off the hook. In a very short time--help will still arrive. Police Officers are instructed to fully investigate every 911 call that they receive whether they know the nature of the emergency or not. If they cannot get into your house because the door is locked, they are instructed to enter your home in any manner they can--and they will. While you may end up having to buy a new door--you can also rest assured that if in a situation where you are incapacitated and need help, you will get the help you need!
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