(Mobile, Ala)- When a 9-1-1 operator says this:
"Mobile County 9-1-1, what's the location of your emergency?"
What they expect to hear next is just that... an emergency. But far too often, it's something like this actual call:
"9-1-1"
"Hey, how you doin'?"
"Yes, ma'am."
"Is this Mobile Water Works?"
"This is Mobile County 9-1-1"
"Oh, I'm sorry. Could you connect me to Mobile Water Works please?"
Or how about... this?
"Mobile County 9-1-1, what's the location of your emergency?"
"Well, ma'am, it's not quite an emergency. My brother's power, he called me, and said the power's been turned off, and I cannot find anywhere in the telephone book to call Alabama Power Company and speak to anybody. It's always a robot. Is there a number or address where I can call them at in Mobile, Alabama?"
There probably is, but locating it is not the job of Mobile County's 9-1-1 operators.
Saving lives and property is.
"It's a frequent problem that we have," said Elaine Payne-White.
She's been answering emergency calls at Mobile County's 9-1-1 Center for nearly a dozen years. And every time she and her coworkers get a call on their screen, they have to assume it's life or death.
Not exchanges like this:
"Mobile County 9-1-1"
"Excuse me, ma'am, could you connect me to a phone number?"
And this:
"Mobile County 9-1-1, what is the nature of your emergency? Do you need police, fire or medical?"
"No. It's my phone."
"So you do not have an emergency?"
"Well, it's my phone.That's my emergency."
"What do you mean, sir?"
"Only one phone is ringing when calls come in."
"Ok, any kind of phone trouble you are having, you need to contact your phone company, ok?"
"We attempt to answer at least 95% of our calls in 15 seconds or less," said 9-1-1 center director George Williams. "But what really gives us problems sometimes, are those calls we shouldn't be getting."
And like these operators, he, too, has heard everything.
"It's not an emergency," he said, smiling, "if you're on Airport Blvd and you want to know the address of a good restaurant."
Which brings us to this call:
"9-1-1 Center, what's the location of your emergency?"
"Ma'am, I hate to bother you all. There's no emergency. I drive a big truck and I'm trying to find a place, I was hoping you might tell me where this place is at. I hate to bother you all."
"If an operator has answered one of these calls," said Williams, "she's on this non-emergency and this real emergency is waiting for somebody to answer."
It does happen, more than you think.
"Mobile County 9-1-1. What is the location of your emergency?"
"Yeah. Can you give me the brown truck?"
"Can I give you what?"
"The number to the brown truck."
"I'm not understanding you. What number is ti that you're wanting?"
"I want the number to the brown truck, it's be a p-s. U-P-S."
"UPS?"
To better understand why these seemingly harmless calls aren't so harmless, you ned only chat with operators about the other kinds of calls they get, real emergencies.
Elaine recalled having to stay on the line with someone lost in the woods, where one person had already been killed.
"And our shift had to talk that person out of the woods where the officer could shine the lights and see them," she remembered. "And the main thing you want to do is save that person's life."
Hard to do, if they can't get through because of... this:
"Mobile County 9-1-1."
"You doing good today?"
"Do you have an emergency?"
"Yes, I do. I was driving down Carlen Street Saturday night, and there was a snake all the way across the road, and before I could get up there to it, he went in the storm sewer. Look like he had swallowed a cat or a dog or something."
"We get calls from children where they're playing on the phone and we try to get the parent on the phone," said Williams.
"Children call, and you have to give them a little break," said Payne-White. "But adults calling for bizarre things or making certain comments, it's like, sir, this is an emergency line!"
As you can see, Mobile County 9-1-1 is a busy place.
Just how busy?
The answer between 365 and 395 thousand calls per year!
So if you call, make sure it's for the real deal.
Not like this:
"Mobile County 9-1-1."
"Yes... what day is today, and the date?"
"Ma'am?"
"What day is today?"
