FAQs

E911 (Enhanced 911) is support for wireless phone users who dial 911. Since wireless users are often mobile, some sort of enhancement is needed to 911 service that allows the location of the user to be known to the call receiver.

You will be asked questions to help identify your emergency and pinpoint your location. Answer all questions as best you can. The information you provide allows us to respond to your emergency in the most efficient way. If necessary, the 911 Dispatcher will give you first aid/CPR instructions until help arrives.

Do not hang up! When the 911 Dispatcher answers, let them know that you called by mistake. If you just hang up, the Dispatcher does not know if an emergency actually exists at the location from which the call originated. If you are calling from a cell phone, the 911 Dispatcher will not have your location and is not able to dispatch help.

With Enhanced 911, in most cases the 911 Dispatcher will see the caller’s name, phone number, and address. If you hang up or the call is disconnected, they will call you back to ensure that you are safe and they may send a police officer to the address to ensure there is not a problem.

If this occurs, the 911 Dispatcher will normally dispatch a police officer to the caller’s location to emphasize the importance of calling 911 only in an emergency.

When calling 911, it is important to know your location and be able to provide 911 with the correct address and closest cross streets or landmarks. If you would like to contact your local 911 call center to confirm the address that correlates with your phone number is correct, do not dial 911. Rather, contact your local public safety answering point or call center through its non-emergency, 10-digit phone number.

With a few exceptions, 911 calls cannot be transferred to other jurisdictions except between call centers within a county and between adjacent counties. The best option to obtain emergency assistance in a different state, county, or city is to dial the 10-digit phone number for law enforcement in the community where assistance is needed. Those numbers can be found on the local law enforcement agency’s websites.

A number of private companies have developed and sell a variety of smartphone computer applications intended to supplement the use of 911. Because 911 system capabilities vary across the United States, it is important that application developers have confirmed that their company/organization has the legal authority to contact 911 on a caller’s behalf. If you have any questions regarding the use of a particular app with the call center in your community, please contact the application provider directly to ask questions about legal authority or the use of their application by a specific 911 call center.

Some 911 professionals are certified as emergency medical dispatchers (EMDs), emergency fire dispatchers (EFDs), or emergency police dispatchers (EPDs), which means they have received additional specialized training to assist callers in all types of emergencies. Managers and supervisors may also be certified as emergency number professionals, or ENPs, demonstrating that they have mastered the comprehensive knowledge base necessary to manage an emergency number program.

Local governments pass laws that allow them to collect 911 fees through your local telephone service or wireless provider. The fees collected are distributed to help pay for emergency communication and response services in your area. Enhanced 911 (E911), which enables a wireless device to transmit its phone number and geographic location to the 911 call center, is an example of how wireless services have upgraded their delivery of 911 calls over time. According to the FCC, some wireless service providers may choose to pass their costs of providing E911 service on to their customers and this charge may also be described as an E911 charge on your wireless telephone bill.