Emergency telephone number
Many countries public telephone networks have a single Emergency Telephone Number, sometimes known as the Universal Emergency Telephone Number or occasionally the Emergency services number, that allows a caller to contact local Emergency Services for assistance. The emergency telephone number differs from country to country. It is typically a three-digit number, (though not always), so that it can be easily remembered and dialed quickly. Some countries have a different emergency number for each of the different emergency services, these often differ only by the last digit.
The number is intended to be used only in an emergency.
For routine and non-urgent enquiries one should use the ordinary telephone numbers for the particular emergency service. These are normally listed in the local telephone directory. Routine and non-urgent calls as well as hoax or crank calls to emergency services numbers waste the time of both dispatchers and emergency responders and can endanger lives. False reports of emergencies are often prosecuted as crimes. If you need to call for help the emergency services numbers are there to help you.
The emergency telephone number is a special case in the country's telephone number plan. In the past, calls to the emergency telephone number were often routed over special dedicated circuits, though with the advent of electronic exchanges these calls are now often mixed with ordinary telephone traffic, but may be able to access circuits that other traffic cannot. Often the system is set up so that once a call is made to an emergency telephone number, it must be answered. Should the caller abandon the call the line may still be held until the emergency service answers and releases the call.
When called the call may be answered by either a telephone operator or an emergency service dispatcher. Depending on the system used:
- if the operator answers, the caller may be asked what service is required, Police, Fire or Ambulance (or Medical) and the call extended to that services' emergency dispatcher, OR
- if the emergency service dispatcher answers, the caller may be asked the nature of their emergency.
This approach rapidly identifies what emergency services such as firefighters, police, ambulance, paramedics or emergency medical services are required. In some emergencies more than one service may be required. If this is the case, one should ask for the most urgently needed service first and explain to the dispatcher that other services are also needed. Generally one emergency service can call on each of the other services to assist them.
In many parts of the world an emergency service can identify the telephone number that a call has been placed from. This is normally done using the system that the telephone company uses to bill calls, rather than Caller ID. This means that emergency services can receive even unlisted telephone numbers for which caller ID would block the number. For an indiviual fixed landline telephone the callers number can often be associated with the caller's address and therefore their location. However, with mobile phones and business telephones, the address may be a mailing address rather than the caller's location. The latest "enhanced" systems are able to provide the physical location of mobile telephones. This violation of privacy is often specifically mandated in a country's legislation.
Emergency numbers by region:
- Australasia:
- Australia: 000
- New Zealand: 111
- Asia: 119 in some parts of Asia
- Europe
- Mainland: 112 (also standard on GSM Mobile telephones)
- UK: 999, or 112 (for compatibility with mainland Europe)
- Italy: Police (and general emergency): 113 - Carabinieri: 112 - Medical emergency: 118 - Fire, disasters: 115
- Russia: Fire: 01, Police (Militsia) - 02, Medical emergency - 103
- North America:
- United States of America: 911
- Canada: 911
See also
HISTORY OF THE EMERGENCY TELEPHONE NUMBER
(The Article below was previously part of the Emergency services number)
999: the first emergency number
The first emergency number system to be deployed was in the United Kingdom.
In the days of loop disconnect dialling, attention was devoted to making the numbers difficult to dial accidentally by making them involve long sequences of pulses, such as in the UK 999 emergency number.
911: the North American emergency services number
9-1-1 or nine-one-one (never "9-11" or nine eleven) is the emergency services number for the United States of America. In over 99% of locations in the United States and Canada, dialing "911" from any telephone will link you to an emergency dispatch center which can send emergency responders to your location in an emergency. In some areas Enhanced 911 which automatically gives dispatch the caller's location is available.
However, be aware that dialing 911 from a mobile phone will reach the state police or highway patrol. You will have to describe your exact location so that the state police can transfer you to the correct local emergency services. You may want to program into your mobile phone the direct phone number to your local police or other emergency services.
The number 911 is so pervasively used in US media that other countries have sometimes had difficulty in educating children not to dial 911 for help.
112: the European and international GSM standard emergency number
See 112.
History of emergency services numbers
- first systems were established in the UK via the operator
- UK 999 system set up in July 1937
- US 911 system set up in 1968, but not universal until the 1970s
Additional topics to be covered:
- mention telephony as essential service
- mobile phones have made emergency reporting more pervasive
- accidental dialling from mobile phones
- treatment of silent emergency calls
- 911 jusrisdiction problem from mobile phones
- "enhanced 911" services
- 311 a non-emergency telephone number, popular in the US, that can be used to contact the Police and other services to report minor incidents and historic crime that does not endanger life - to avoid overloading 911.
- National Emergency Number Association (NENA)