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Missing Person - Tracy Williams, Technorati Employee

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31–40 of 61 posts

Re: Missing Person - Tracy Williams, Technorati Employee

#31
post #28
post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not sure how it works on all European countries but at least on my home country if you do call 112 and hang up nothing is going to happen. If you call 112 and say something and the call gets cut for some reason nothing is going to happen either...

German anecdote: A few years ago my 2yr old son seems to have dialed 112 by accident. We learned about this a minute later when the fire department called back to check if we needed help.

When my kid was three or four, I called the sheriff's business number, asked to talk to the 911 office, and asked them if I could have my son dial 911 and talk to them, for training (his). They checked if they were busy, then said OK.

It puffed up his chest a bit, but we talked about emergencies, how to get help, why we don't call 911 unless it's an emergency, etc.

I suppose if everyone did it they wouldn't be agreeable, but no one does, so you should too. :)

Re: Missing Person - Tracy Williams, Technorati Employee

#32
post #27

Technorati people, in case you are reading this, it might help to post more than one photo of her. Sometimes, it is hard to remember or recognize faces, when you have only seen one photo. I hope everything turns out all right.

And post different angles if possible (front, profile, etc). It matters.

[deleted]

Re: Missing Person - Tracy Williams, Technorati Employee

#35
The FBI should use Facebook and RSS to crowdsource manhunts. California has "Amber Alerts" for abducted children that are announced on TV, radio, and highway signs. But the FBI might be able to get more eyeballs Facebook and RSS feeds announcing with photos of missing people or wanted criminals. They could have national, state, and local feeds so people can choose fewer but closer announcements.

Re: Missing Person - Tracy Williams, Technorati Employee

#36
post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Dial 911 from virtually any cell phone and hang up. No need to say anything. PS. 112 in Europe. (edit) I meant to say that American 911 is European 112. I don't know if the police in European countries is supposed to react to dropped 112 calls or not. In Canada and in the US it is. A friend of mine saw it in action. He saw something, dialed, realized it wasn't a big deal, hung up, walked away 100 m, then, boom - not…

I'm not sure how it works on all European countries but at least on my home country if you do call 112 and hang up nothing is going to happen. If you call 112 and say something and the call gets cut for some reason nothing is going to happen either...

in my home country you're lucky if they pick up the phone before you bleed out.

the thing is, 'europe' is a true overgeneralization, every country has different qualities of handling 112 emergency calls.

Re: Missing Person - Tracy Williams, Technorati Employee

#37
post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Dial 911 from virtually any cell phone and hang up. No need to say anything. PS. 112 in Europe. (edit) I meant to say that American 911 is European 112. I don't know if the police in European countries is supposed to react to dropped 112 calls or not. In Canada and in the US it is. A friend of mine saw it in action. He saw something, dialed, realized it wasn't a big deal, hung up, walked away 100 m, then, boom - not…

If you can dial 911, don't just hang up, the response to that will vary from one place to another, even from one dispatcher to another. You need to find some way to make clear you're in trouble.

Echo this, recently a friend had an epileptic seizure in Switzerland and they not only wouldn't come right away, they made me very carefully justify why I thought they should come. It's my new rule not to assume this...

Re: Missing Person - Tracy Williams, Technorati Employee

#38

The FBI should use Facebook and RSS to crowdsource manhunts. California has "Amber Alerts" for abducted children that are announced on TV, radio, and highway signs. But the FBI might be able to get more eyeballs Facebook and RSS feeds announcing with photos of missing people or wanted criminals. They could have national, state, and local feeds so people can choose fewer but closer announcements.

I literally thought about building a Facebook app like this not more than an hour ago. This is definitely something that should be built, I wonder how difficult it would be to get the data out of the police departments...

Re: Missing Person - Tracy Williams, Technorati Employee

#39

Does a product exist combining a panic button with a gps (or mobile location) that links to police, ambulance or fire. 1 click police, 2 clicks ambulance, 3 clicks fire... sort of thing?

Life360 (www.life360.com) has such a feature. It is essentially a safety app so families or groups of friends can keep tabs on each other.

Full disclosure: I interned with them a few years ago when they were a startup out of Berkeley. Looks like they've grown a lot since then.

Re: Missing Person - Tracy Williams, Technorati Employee

#40
post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Dial 911 from virtually any cell phone and hang up. No need to say anything. PS. 112 in Europe. (edit) I meant to say that American 911 is European 112. I don't know if the police in European countries is supposed to react to dropped 112 calls or not. In Canada and in the US it is. A friend of mine saw it in action. He saw something, dialed, realized it wasn't a big deal, hung up, walked away 100 m, then, boom - not…

> PS. 112 in Europe. This explains. My old phone with a physical keyboard would allow me to dial 112 even when it was locked.

It's part of the GSM spec to always allow a 112 call - even with no SIM or no account for the phone.

It's a bit of a problem in some countries - you get a lot of 'butt dialed' 112 calls - and the protocol in many jurisdictions if you have an emergency call and no voice is to assume the worst and send fire+police+medics

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