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Comment by kelseyfrog | Hacker News Reader

What constitutes a 988 emergency?

I was raised with a sacrosanct view of 911. Do not call unless it is a bona fide emergency. This means something along the lines of a situation outside my expertise that poses a threat to life. Broadly speaking it ranges from medical, physical, security, and probably a host of other things I'm forgetting.

However, I don't have the same instilled ideas about 988. What are the sufficient conditions to place a call, for oneself and for others?

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If you think you should call 988 for yourself, you probably should. Consider the results of a false positive versus a false negative. I think the people on those lines are happy enough to deal with 100 of the former to prevent one of the latter.

More subjectively, if you find yourself at a moment where you simply cannot think of any reason not to kill yourself, and especially if you have a fairly concrete plan, well, what do you have to lose? You can always apologize later.

Regarding 911, I called once, the real deal. I was appalled and experiencing a fair amount of shame, but realized that all social conventions had fallen away. I had found myself in a pit of agony with no way out, and there was nothing I would not have done to get out. I'm not saying you should wait until that point--many life-threatening situations do not involve agony--but if you're there, you definitely should make the call.

In another case, I called 911 for a child. I thought there was a five percent chance that she would experience an outcome that would terrorize her and maybe destroy her life. Close enough.

Your view of 911 is incorrect. You should attend a safety briefing from your responders (or if in a smaller region, call their office number). To loosely rephrase:

"911 is if you need assistance now. Non-emergency is for the paperwork the next day."

There is no global rule about when 911 vs a non-emergency number is correct. I've lived in a city where 911 is the only way to reach police dispatch, and police dispatch is the only way to get a police report taken, even if it's just for insurance reasons the day after a fire or something. I learned this by calling the city's non-emergency line, and they told me to call 911. What's the non-emergency line for then? Stuff like reporting a pothole on your street, a dangerous building that needs inspection, illegal dumping, a traffic signal's out, etc.

Cities can be completely inconsistent on this. At a building in a mid-sized city in California, we had the police department advise us to call their non-emergency number for emergencies and let the dispatcher know that we actually had an emergency, because this would reach the department directly, whereas calling 911 would usually reach the CHP, and there were apparently problems with communication between the CHP and the department. They said that their non-emergency line reached the same dispatchers that 911 calls routed to the department would reach.

> I've lived in a city where 911 is the only way to reach police dispatch

My current city is like this, but more. If you need to reach a detective to return a call, you need to call 911 and ask to be transferred. Otoh, CenturyLink has broken 911 service for days a couple times since I moved here; an alternate number for the county has been provided, which will probably work for emergencies, but maybe not for returning calls.

In NY you can call your local precinct directly for that kind of thing.

If you need the police to come for some reason, even a car parked too long on the street, you call 911. There's no bar to meet.

Where I live, 911 might not answer, though. I've had that experience.

Thank you for pointing that out. Is it that my idea of when to call is too narrow? I am having a hard time understanding the difference between what I listed and official resources[1] which say things like

> 911 is to be used for emergencies only. An emergency is any serious medical problem (chest pain, seizure, bleeding), any type of fire (business, car, building), any life-threatening situation (fights, person with weapons, etc.) or to report crimes in progress.

1. https://www.fcva.us/departments/public-safety-communications...

This won't solve 100% of cases, but when in doubt (and if life or limb aren't at risk), can't you call 311 and let them tell you, if necessary, to hang up and dial 911 instead?

This is the first time I can recall hearing of 311. Apparently there's a wiki page on it. Looks like it might not be available everywhere.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3-1-1

You can and eventually you will be transferred but you will absolutely be met with the: "Sir, next time call 911". I speak from experience.

Yes, it's too narrow. The 911 dispatcher on the other side is a human being who can handle priorities.

A good example is if you have a disabled vehicle blocking an intersection - that's a 911 call.

I called 911 once because a large piece of furniture was sitting in the middle of the highway; it felt weird

Fun fact: In California (presumably other states[0] too, but I live in California), calling 911 from a cellular phone along a freeway corridor routes the call directly to California Highway Patrol's 911 dispatch instead of to the adjacent town/county/whatever: https://sanramonpolice.com/2016/09/30/using-a-cell-phone-to-...

"If a cellular 911 caller is on, or in close proximity, to a freeway, there is a high likelihood this call will go to the California Highway Patrol dispatch center. The California Highway Patrol (CHP) has jurisdiction over state freeways and handles emergency calls on these roadways. Cellular calls often utilize towers that are located near the freeway. Therefore, some cellular calls made from city streets, but near a freeway, will be routed to the California Highway Patrol."

You definitely did the right thing, though. I've made similar calls for mattresses and ladders blocking lanes.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/State_police_(United_States)#S...

It shouldn't feel weird. You did the right thing. Your call could have easily saved someone's life or limbs. I've made such 911 calls many times.

One time there was a dizzy-looking stray cat sleeping in a puddle near my house and the non-emergency line told me to call 911.

It gets even more complicated when some areas have emergency and non-emergency converged to 911 like my county in WA does.

Even in areas where they still exist as separate numbers, they are pretty much always handled by the same calltakers.

I wonder if emergency calls jump past non-emergency calls in the queue. If so, that seems like a reasonable setup, and it would be better to call the correct number if possible.

I suppose they could even allow an incoming emergency call to interrupt a non-emergency conversation (which would be put on hold) so that emergency calls never have to wait for a non-emergency conversation to finish.

>that emergency calls never have to wait

911 calls in my major metro relatively frequently ring unanswered

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