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Comment by Havoc | Hacker News Reader

Not sure I’d say vital. Don’t think I’ve ever seen one in use. For calling I mean not as a lavatory

The last time I phoned the police in the UK I was told that I shouldn't be using the emergency 999 number unless it was a life or death situation. I was being threatened with violence at the time?

Having the means to make an emergency call doesn't necessarily result in getting help, it would seem.

*There is a non-emergency number but this also seems to be just a way of frustrating you into giving up.

For reference, this is simply not true. You can ring 999 for fires (which generally pose a much greater risk to property), you should call 999 after a serious traffic accident regardless of whether someone's life is in danger and you can even phone 999 if you're alone and have been stopped by a lone policeman (I learned this one recently from a criminology teacher). I'm sorry to hear you had a bad experience; of course, it has to be an emergency, but being threatened certainly sounds like that to me!

That last one is a recent addendum as a result of the murder of Sarah Everard.

Indeed, which may be helpful if a serving police officer intends to murder you and is also willing to allow you to make the call.

Yes, it's just for the show because they know full well that if a police officer stops you and says (s)he is arresting you then in real life you have two options: to comply or to flee/to fight. Obviously they cannot tell the public to resist arrest so they came up with this slightly ridiculous suggestion.

The only redeeming grace is that, police being mostly un-armed in the UK, fleeing is still a realistic option.

Cousens was armed.

If the alternative is what Everard had to endure, I would argue fleeing is still preferable.

He was a psycho but given his motives I doubt he would have whipped out his police firearm and shot her in the middle of a busy street in south London.

> you can even phone 999 if you're alone and have been stopped by a lone policeman

Oh no no no, the Metropolitan Police advised to "flag down a bus" in that case. And the Prime Minister agrees: https://news.sky.com/story/sarah-everard-murder-pm-vows-to-s...

In all honesty, a random bus driver is more likely to help you.

> *There is a non-emergency number but this also seems to be just a way of frustrating you into giving up.

I have been there and got the tshirt - litterally 20 minutes of automated mesasges. The end result - 'you should call the emergency number 999'

I called the non emergency line for a break-in I saw the end of. The person on the other end must have had a bad day or something, they were pissed off

"Well if it's no longer in progress why have you called?"

Well shit, good point. Why am I being a grass? Let the people that had their stuff taken from them figure it out

Emergency isn't much better, was actively being mugged and managed to get a call out. They were more interested in getting my personal details (no, not my location, they had that)... I'm actively running from a guy that wants to kick my ass, can I maybe give this to the officer I later found out was literally round the corner?

Honestly it's a call and hope sort of service. I wouldn't rely on it for anything police related anyway. Not had to use it for medical/fire luckily

'Not had to use it for medical/fire luckily'

Anecdotally, fire service will always attend at speed. For an ambulance, unless 'patient is not breathing' you'll have to go through the usual call-centre questionnaire process.

Usually they ask you those details after you have described the situation and location and they have dispatched someone (if they have decided to do that), which sounds reasonable.

> I'm actively running from a guy that wants to kick my ass, can I maybe give this to the officer I later found out was literally round the corner?

I’ve called once each for fire and ambulance, without problems.

The fire call was “the detectors in my building are going off, while I can smell smoke it might just be a neighbour’s cigarettes, there is no visible flame”. This produced a fire engine, flashing lights but no sirens, and free replacement fire alarms.

The ambulance call was “A cyclist bounced off the kerb, fell off their bike, then had a grand-mal seizure”, which produced an ambulance, and as this was during rush hour there were also several random nurses who just stopped their cars and asked if they could help.

Well, I think it depends on how you describe "threaten with violence" to them. On the face of it, it can be a serious situation that perfectly justifies calling 999 (I did it once for this reason and a police car was there within minutes) or it can be just words thrown around. They will try to assess the situation based on what you tell them.

Yuck and.

> So Ofcom is proposing clearer, stronger rules to safeguard a phone box against removal, if any of four criteria applies:

>its location is not already covered by all four mobile networks; or it is located at an accident or suicide hotspot; or >more than 52 calls have been made from it over the past 12 months; or > exceptional circumstances mean there is a need for a public call box.

Seems to be reasonable criteria if accepted.

I had the same thought, but:

> ...while 25,000 calls were made to Childline and 20,000 to Samaritans.

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