Do Emergency Calls Need More Technology Or More Common Sense?
from the if-you-can't-hear-this-message,-dial-5-now dept
A guilty verdict in a rape and murder case in the UK is raising some questions about the country's emergency call system and its ability to deal with callers who can't speak. In this case, the 17-year-old victim dialed 999 (the British equivalent of 911) while she was being abducted, but she was obviously unable to speak directly to the operator without alerting her killer. The system followed its usual procedure for silent calls, giving the caller a recorded message to either tap their phone or hit the 5 key twice. That is fine for somebody whose only problem is that they can't speak; but for users who can't listen to the message and don't know to hit keys (which doesn't have to be an extreme case, but could also be the victim of a stroke or other medical emergency), it doesn't offer much help. Authorities are working on a text-based system for people with hearing and speech impediments, as they should, but again, that leaves many incapacitated people out in the cold. There will surely be a search for some technological solution to the problem, but maybe what's needed is some more common sense. For instance, is it very well publicized that people should hit the 5 key if they can't speak? Why not advertise that and make it more well known as a start? Inevitably, this sort of case will attract a lot of attention to the supposed technical shortcomings of the emergency call system, and indeed, it's something that should be a target for constant improvement. But the solutions to consider shouldn't only be technical ones.
Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
Filed Under: common sense, emergency calls
Reader Comments
Subscribe: RSS
View by: Time | Thread
999 call common sense
The technology is available so all thats left is IF the country is WILLING to upgrade the cars or to acquire a few new units capable of such tasks
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: 999 call common sense
However it is possible to estimate a mobile's position by triangulating their position based on GSM (mobile) signal strength. This information is allready used by emergency services, but it has nothing to do with police vehicles and more to do with the network provider.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: 999 call common sense
On another note, how is this handled in the US? As far as I know, we don't even have that dial 5 option.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re: 999 call common sense
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re: 999 call common sense
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Devaluating Emergency Calls
One problem in handling emergency calls is the number of hoax and unintentional calls: hence, calls are treated by the (human and tech) system as probably valid but possibly hoax/unintentional.
A second problem is the nuimber of trivial emergency calls that are made. Some are almost incredible, e.g: a woman dialled 999 to report that her rabbit had the wrong ears, it has emerged.
After buying the bunny, the woman found that its ears were not floppy as promised on the newspaper advert.
She called the emergency number to complain about the imperfect pet.
Amongst other nuisance calls revealed by the Central Scotland Police based in Stirling were two people who dialled 999 after being splashed by cars in wet weather.
When told it was inappropriate to use the number for the soaking, one woman verbally abused the call handler.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
911 & GPS
I had never heard of the press 5 thing myself and I have been doing this for almost 5 years. We send someone every time on a silent call if we have a location, you don't have to press 5 or tap the phone. We also have TTY capability for those persons with hearing/speaking disabilities.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: 911 & GPS
GSM carriers on the other hand, use only network based triangulation and isn't very accurate. The FCC E911 location accuracy requirements for GSM carriers is significantly lower than that of CDMA carriers. Seeing as Europe uses only GSM, the usefulness of the system would have been questionable. I would imagine though, that newer WCDMA phones would be capable of assisted GPS since it is virtually identical to CDMA2000 and also requires a GPS receiver.
One problem with phase II and this type of situation though is the location is usual only calculated when the call is first made, and not perpetually updated. The call taker can rebid to get the new location, but to save network bandwidth, many carriers cache the location and only repeat the original calculation. Kinda stupid in my opinion.
But yeah, it has always been my understanding that in the US the standard procedure is to dispatch help in the case of a silent call, hangup, or even in the case of a 'nevermind'.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
mobiles that self dial
I'm in the UK and I've certainly never heard of the '5-key' thing. Definitely should be publicised more.
AIUI, the reason why silent calls are often ignored in the UK, rather than chased up, is that most mobile phones here are designed to allow the user to dial 999 even if the phone keypad is locked. This has the unfortunate side effect that some models of phone can dial 999 on their own by being jostled in a person's pocket or bag.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Problem solved.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Simple If Desired
"This call will activate an emergency response in X time..."
For those who can still use the phone:
Three of any number indicates an SOS - just like in the wilderness.
But it sounds like bureaucracy that doesn't want to commit reasources without ID.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Ummm, no, the article doesn't deal with the fact that the woman was on a cell, it deals with the system of transferring callers to an automated system if they don't speak after calling.
But nice try at being a dick.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Here is what 911 states about not being able to speak
Stay calm.
Dial 911.
Either leave the phone hanging or make some sort of noise to let the dispatcher know there is a real emergency.
With Enhanced 911 your address is provided to the call taker and they can go ahead and dispatch police, fire or medical assistance to your location even if they do not hear you speak.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
999 calls
[ link to this | view in chronology ]