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When You Dial 911 and Wall Street Answers

nytimes.com

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Re: When You Dial 911 and Wall Street Answers

#111

Post by mtanski »

TruthAndDare wrote: post #14
illumin8 wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's a good question, but many of these rural southern towns are very poor, and governed by conservative ideologues that have privatized all non-mandatory services. These towns are required by federal law to provide school service to children within them, however, anything else like police, fire, and ambulance services are not required. I think it's truly a shame that this has led to predatory practices by private co…

> predatory practices by private companies It does sound awful not to have access to fire service to someone like me who is used to it,* but then again, have the company done anything wrong by offering the service? Starting no company at all and offering no service at all would have been acceptable, right? I mean, that's what most of us do. Then, is there really anything wrong with offering people a service, even at…

I'm all of removing regulation where it makes sense, replacing public with private where it makes sense. This seams like a clear regulatory failure, as in not enough regulation and not enough right kind of regulation.

So while the company could (and should) have done more. The real issue is that there should be statewide clear policy and regulation that defines what standards (public / private) entities must meet if they provide these services. And I do image these would be stringent and complex.

Re: When You Dial 911 and Wall Street Answers

#113

Post by jzwinck »

CPLX wrote: post #71
jzwinck wrote: post #16

In the US a lot of us grew up with the idea that when something really bad was happening you would dial 911 and people would appear very soon to help you. I don't know whether this myth was ever true, but it certainly is not true today. I have called 911 or its equivalent more than a dozen times on three continents. No magic helping people appear within five minutes. Or ten. Usually not twenty either. Sometimes not a…

This doesn't sound right. I don't know as much about other cities but if you call 911 in Manhattan you're going to be connected to a call center at Metrotech in Brooklyn, a few blocks from where I am typing this, where a real live human who is almost certainly from NYC and lives here will answer your call, determine the precinct and sector and get the job to dispatch. If someone is asking clarifying details it's like…

I never said I got an "out of town call center." I said the dispatcher was not a local. Obviously I couldn't tell you where the call center was (though another time I called, I was routed straight away to the NY State Police and I have no idea why).

As you may know, there is a law that New York City employees must be residents. However, I once lived in an apartment used by multiple firefighters as their residential address, but who did not actually live there. Rent in NYC is expensive, city employee salaries are not generally very high, and so people do cheat by paying a small amount of money for a place to use as a mailing address (or even sleep occasionally).

Another story from NYC 911: I called to report live exposed electrical wiring in a sidewalk shed on a busy street. The British call this a hoarding, and out-of-towners often don't know the term, but it's sufficiently well-known in NYC that the NY Times uses it in headlines: http://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/25/nyregion/the-sidewalk-shed...

The dispatcher had no idea what a "sidewalk shed" was. I explained what it was in some detail, after which the dispatcher still didn't get it, and thought I was talking about a shed like you'd have behind your house in the suburbs. This person may well have been working in Brooklyn, but surely hadn't lived there any length of time. Indeed the city employee residency law doesn't require any "warm up" period--you can move in any time within the first 90 days of your employment.

Re: When You Dial 911 and Wall Street Answers

#114

Post by Zancarius »

macNchz wrote: post #99
jzwinck wrote: post #16

In the US a lot of us grew up with the idea that when something really bad was happening you would dial 911 and people would appear very soon to help you. I don't know whether this myth was ever true, but it certainly is not true today. I have called 911 or its equivalent more than a dozen times on three continents. No magic helping people appear within five minutes. Or ten. Usually not twenty either. Sometimes not a…

As a counter anecdote, I lived in a bit of a rough neighborhood in Brooklyn for a while and called 911 several times for things happening on the street in front of my apartment building. Each time the dispatcher asked a couple of straightforward clarifying questions and the police/fire/ems showed up in minutes. I was extremely impressed and felt good about paying taxes for a well-functioning system.

As a corollary to your counter-anecdote, the few times I've had to call 911 were in a very rural community serviced by a volunteer fire department. They've always shown up within 5 minutes or less, though it helps to live just down the road. Heck, even calling the sheriff's dispatcher resulted in no more than 5-10 minutes between first contact and their appearance.

We had neighbors who'd set bonfires under trees during all hours of the day and night in the middle of the forest. It may sound stupid to call for that reason, but if you're familiar with wildfires and how often they're started by human factors here in the southwest, you may be somewhat sympathetic.

I remember one circumstance a few years ago during the dry season at the very start of our monsoons where lightning had caused a transformer across the highway to explode and catch fire. I don't know who called it in first, but they were there within about 5 minutes followed shortly thereafter by the electric coop.

I'm sure there's circumstances counter to this, but we've always had fantastic experiences and donate to our VFD.

Re: When You Dial 911 and Wall Street Answers

#115

Post by yourapostasy »

JshWright wrote: post #89
jsprogrammer wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yep, came across a man standing in a crosswalk in Berkeley who appeared to be dazed and the people with him asked me to call for an ambulance, explaining that the man had been pushed and hit his head on the street. It was probably within two minutes of my calling 911 that an ambulance had arrived and the man was being treated. The other time I called 911 from roughly the same location, the call only rang. I hung up a…

The non-answer is actually an issue common to 911 centers. A large, visible event happens (like a giant fire), and they get flooded with calls, all reporting the same thing.

With automatic location detection of many callers today, I wonder if the 911 services can play an automatic recording for callers identified calling from a hyper-specific location. Then many people calling from the same location about the same incident will hear a recording that tells them "X incident has been reported and is being responded to, press any key or hold if you are calling about another incident".

Re: When You Dial 911 and Wall Street Answers

#116

Post by pravda »

nkrisc wrote: post #6

Privatization sounds great when you can afford your own private services. Otherwise, tough luck, pull on those bootstraps harder.

Whether you pay it directly, or thru property tax, how is there a difference?

The difference is, if the firemen are government employees, they can vote themselves rich.

http://www.publicsectorinc.org/2014/06/firefighter-pay-shows...

Re: When You Dial 911 and Wall Street Answers

#117

Post by MichaelGG »

partisan wrote: post #76
MichaelGG wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 --…

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.

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.

Re: When You Dial 911 and Wall Street Answers

#118

Post by sgnelson »

jzwinck wrote: post #113
CPLX wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This doesn't sound right. I don't know as much about other cities but if you call 911 in Manhattan you're going to be connected to a call center at Metrotech in Brooklyn, a few blocks from where I am typing this, where a real live human who is almost certainly from NYC and lives here will answer your call, determine the precinct and sector and get the job to dispatch. If someone is asking clarifying details it's like…

I never said I got an "out of town call center." I said the dispatcher was not a local. Obviously I couldn't tell you where the call center was (though another time I called, I was routed straight away to the NY State Police and I have no idea why). As you may know, there is a law that New York City employees must be residents. However, I once lived in an apartment used by multiple firefighters as their residential a…

Live exposed wires is not an emergency. That's what 311 is for (or similar City Information and Reporting services.)

Re: When You Dial 911 and Wall Street Answers

#119

Post by CPLX »

jzwinck wrote: post #113
CPLX wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This doesn't sound right. I don't know as much about other cities but if you call 911 in Manhattan you're going to be connected to a call center at Metrotech in Brooklyn, a few blocks from where I am typing this, where a real live human who is almost certainly from NYC and lives here will answer your call, determine the precinct and sector and get the job to dispatch. If someone is asking clarifying details it's like…

I never said I got an "out of town call center." I said the dispatcher was not a local. Obviously I couldn't tell you where the call center was (though another time I called, I was routed straight away to the NY State Police and I have no idea why). As you may know, there is a law that New York City employees must be residents. However, I once lived in an apartment used by multiple firefighters as their residential a…

I have lived in NYC for 17 years and you are the first person I have heard use the term sidewalk shed.

Re: When You Dial 911 and Wall Street Answers

#120

Post by qSP7n2cupP8iIpM »

CPLX wrote: post #119
jzwinck wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I never said I got an "out of town call center." I said the dispatcher was not a local. Obviously I couldn't tell you where the call center was (though another time I called, I was routed straight away to the NY State Police and I have no idea why). As you may know, there is a law that New York City employees must be residents. However, I once lived in an apartment used by multiple firefighters as their residential a…

I have lived in NYC for 17 years and you are the first person I have heard use the term sidewalk shed.

Here it is used by the New York Times, described as "ubiquitous":

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/25/nyregion/the-sidewalk-shed...

The New York Times has lived in NYC for over 160 years.

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