The number 911 is used for emergencies in North America, but why is
that particular number used, and how did it all start?
The original 911 system began in the late 1960s, but the earliest
system in the United States for someone to make a request for emergency
assistance started just after the turn of the 20th century. The
communications company, Ericsson Incorporated, developed a portable
phone handset and crank in the early 1900s so people could communicate
an emergency. Their device used two metal hooks that were placed on
bare phone wires to form a connection. The hand box was then cranked,
a connection was made, and it was hoped that someone would answer the
signal on the other end of the line. While it was a crude beginning to
an emergency communication system, it was credited with success in
reporting a train robbery around 1907 that led to the arrests of the
criminals.
It took a series of tragedies to get to the basic 911 system we know
today. The most prominent was the sinking of the Titanic in 1912 which
highlighted the need for better disaster communications. Radio
communications were regularly used between ships, but when the Titanic
had signaled an emergency, it was never received by the nearest ship
because the radio operator was off duty. In response to the disaster,
the United States Congress passed the Radio Act of 1912. It required
that all ships at sea had to have a radio operator on duty at all times
so a possible distress call wouldn't be missed. This passing of this
Radio Act established a connection between the government and
emergency communications.
It would be more than 50 years before the basic 911 service would be
implemented, however. Prior to that time, if someone had an emergency,
the person would dial zero to get an operator. It became apparent that
the operators weren't specifically trained to handle an emergency
situation, and they didn't have the necessary tools to answer or
handle an emergency call effectively. In response to these problems,
the National Association of Fire Chiefs recommended a single telephone
number to report fires in the 1950s. The request was never
implemented, but it did highlight to the government the inadequacies of
the current system.
In 1967, a report from the Commission on Law Enforcement and
Administration of Justice under President Lyndon Johnson recommended
that citizens should be able to contact police departments using a
single number. In January 1968, AT&T announced that 911 would be the
universal emergency number. The first 911 call was made by Senator
Rankin Fite the next month in Haleyville, Alabama. It wouldn't be
until 1999 and the signing of the Public Safety Act that 911 was
officially designated as the nation's emergency number.
But why was the number 911 picked to be used in an emergency in the
first place? AT&T designated the numbers 9-1-1 because they wanted a
number that was short and easy to remember, and one that hadn't been
used as an area code. Since rotary phones were the main phones being
used at the time, a shorter number was also a lot easier to dial.
The 911 system allowed local control over emergency communications,
but by the early 1970s, 911 operators were beginning to see the value
of having a person's name, phone number, and address show up when a
person called in an emergency. This led to the Enhanced 911 system in
the mid-1970s. This allowed a call to be routed to the proper
authorities, it identified the location, and also identified the
number. With the rise of cell phones, however, the ability of a precise
location has become a problem. According to a 2015 report by USA
Today, many places in the country report that the location from an
emergency call is not showing up accurately. Operators can sometimes
only locate the cell tower that was used for the call. In California
alone, just under 50% of the calls included a location. Since more
than 70% of 911 calls originate from cell phones, the government has
proposed a new 911 system called Next Generation 911. The technology is
in place for the new system, but it has not yet been implemented.
While 911 is the emergency number for North America, in the United
Kingdom the emergency number is 999. The United Kingdom's emergency
number is actually the earliest. It was established in 1935 when five
women died during a fire in London. Though neighbors tried to dial
zero for the operator, they found that it was jammed, and they
couldn't alert anyone about the fire. Another method for calling in an
emergency was to dial the police by asking the operator for Whitehall
1212. In response to the tragedy, the General Post Office proposed a
three digit number of 999 that would alert operators through a special
signal that the call was an emergency. The system went into place in
1937 and first covered a 12 mile radius in London. One of the first
calls was from a woman saying that her husband was chasing a burglar.
The burglar was caught quickly. The United Kingdom and its territories
still use the 999 number for emergencies today.
Sources:
NENA, The Industry Council, PBS, USA Today, The Desert Sun, 911.gov <
http://911.gov/
--
Christine
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friend_bride_wife@xxxxxxxxxx
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“ Prejudice is a burden that confuses the past, threatens the future
and renders the present inaccessible. ”
~Maya Angelou
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