Central Dispatch 911

Public Safety Through Professional Service

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How does 911 work, and how do I test my location?

When 911 receives a call, the system provides dispatchers with the name of the subscriber, address, telephone number and proper jurisdiction for police, fire and ambulance.

You can test what information is displayed from your home if a 911 call were to be placed. This would allow you to verify that the correct information is being given in case of an emergency.

To perform this test DO NOT CALL 911, you must instead dial 989-673-8738 to schedule the test.

How are 911 calls prioritized?

Immediate Response: Dispatched as soon as possible to the closest available unit, A nearby unit on a lower priority call can be broken free.

Conditions: Danger to human life or property (Emergency), perpetrators at scene or still in area, evidence may be destroyed and magnitude of incident.

Priority two, Delayed Response: Requiring presence of police officer but not an immediate response, quality of police service will not decrease due to delay. May be "stacked" until appropriate police unit is available.

Why do the operators ask questions they already have answers to?

Regardless of the information displayed on the screen, the 911 operator has to confirm that it has not changed. A digital recording system allows immediate playback of all phone and radio transmissions coming into the communications center, allowing call takers to quickly replay messages whenever necessary. In addition, a telephone device for the deaf (TDD) is used to assist hearing and speech impaired callers.

Dial 911

Tell the operator what the emergency is, wait for further instruction from the operator, don't hang up until the operator tells you to do so.