Comment on Colorado: to test the 911 service, you must first place a normal call to the 911 center. WTF, they don’t think you might be unable to do that?

B0rax@feddit.org ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago

• dfyx@lemmy.helios42.de ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago

  To be sure that your (possibly rather unusual) phone or connection will work. Maybe you have an automated home security system, an emergency call button or your own GSM antenna that gives you access in a very remote area. That’s totally legit and many emergency hotlines have scheduled times when you can do that. They make sure they have additional staff during those times so test calls don’t interrupt regular operations. If you need to do a test outside those scheduled times, it’s polite to call a non-emergency line first to make sure they have the capacity to handle your test call. You wouldn’t want to bother them when they’re already understaffed or some large event causes a high call volume.

  In the end, an unannounced test call isn’t a big deal either. Just let them know right away what’s happening and they should be fine with it. Just make sure to stick what you actually need to test. Calling once a week or “testing” a phone that could also make regular calls could be considered disruption of emergency services.

  Disclaimer: I’m not professionally affiliated with any emergency service operator, just speaking from personal experience. I’ve had a couple of situations where I wasn’t sure if calling 112 (the European 911) was the right thing, always politely explained the situation and was always told that I had done the right thing. Operators would rather have you call than not call when you’re not sure.

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