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What
happens when you call 911?
When you have to call 911,
the situation is one that requires immediate help. You want to get
information to the right people right away.
Sometimes this is
complicated by the phone company service area because it does not
following the county line. GTE’s service territory reaches several miles
into Santa Cruz County in some areas.
If you live in Santa Cruz
County, the phone company has listed your road in the computer to route
your 911 call to Santa Cruz County NETCOM, the emergency services
dispatchers for the county. Sometimes a road or residence may not have
been listed for this routing even though the call comes from inside Santa
Cruz County.
Not to worry. If you call
911 and your call goes into Santa Clara County even though you live in
Santa Cruz County, the dispatcher in Santa Clara who answers your call has
two opportunities to alert him or her to your location.
The first is the computer
screen at their work station. It tells them the location where the 911
call was made, including the address and the county.
If for some reason this
does not alert them, the Geo. File, which gives them the physical location
and cross streets, tells them from what county the call is coming. Any
call that goes into Santa Clara County dispatch that should have gone to
Santa Cruz County is quickly routed to Santa Cruz.
You can confirm that your
911 call is routed correctly before an emergency occurs in one of two
ways:
1. Call GTE directly and
confirm that calls from your phone are being routed to the correct county.
2. Contact Santa Cruz
County dispatch (NETCOM). When NETCOM is notified of a mistake, they send
a request to the phone company. The phone company, in turn, adjusts their
computers to route any future 911 calls from your phone to the correct
dispatch center. Ben Hatheway, NETCOM, says that you can call 911 to
confirm your call is being properly routed. He did request that you pick a
time that would not be a busy time for them. Avoid evenings, weekends,
commute hours and times of storms or disasters.
All 911 calls made from a
cellular phone go to a CHP dispatch center. Calls should go to Salinas
unless they are rolled over to the Golden Gate office. Their computer
screen shows that the call is made from a cellular phone but not the
location it is being made from. You should tell them where you are,
including your county. They can then route your call to the dispatch
center that services your area.
I had a call in my office about two people with guns in
an area where they should not have been. One person had called a neighbor
to see if she had seen anything. The second neighbor couldn’t see
anything so she went out to look around. A third neighbor heard about it
and phoned my office and left a message on my answering machine. Somewhere
along the line, the Sheriff’s Office dispatcher was called. I heard
about it through the dispatcher.
If you see someone wandering around your home or
business with guns and they should not be there, do me a favor. Lock the
doors, stay away from the windows and call 911. I would much rather drive
out to where you are only to find that it was some neighbor kid wandering
through instead of not hearing about it until it becomes a serious
emergency. Please, call 911.
And speaking of calling 911, someone did call "the
Cops," as a result of that other "driver," the "Hot
Shot." The one speeding, passing over the double yellow lines, and
ignoring stop signs. Not even a brake light showing.
Driving like that was
bound to get "the Cops" called sooner or later. The advantage
for these "Hot Shot" drivers though is their driving has moved
them one whole car ahead when they are waiting in line to get onto Highway
17. I guess it’s worth it, if you like to live life on the edge.
If you
prefer a somewhat more survivable commute, you are probably relieved to
see the extra patrol cars along the way. Yes, they are venturing off
Highway 17 in search of those "Hot Shots."
One "Hot
Shot" was surprised when passing the school, over the double yellow
line, in the fog to see a CHP car parked in the middle of Summit Road. Is
that legal? I suppose if the "Hot Shots" want to slow down, they
can ask. As for me? I’m just happy to have survived another commute.
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