police phonecall emergencies
Is it ever legal for a company to instruct employees not to call 911?
<p>First question, is it illegal to prevent someone from calling 911 in the event of an emergency? I'm assuming it is.</p>

<p>I had an internship in large corporate buildings and have seen some weird things. On some phones it had a number to call for security (999) or a private incident response team. I never was able to get a straight answer out of the bureaucracy, but do some really large corporations have private police forces you are supposed to call before (or after) calling 911?</p>

<p>What is the point of having a fire-warden in the building, is that so you don't have to call 911 if there's a fire? Maybe this is a better fit for workplace.stackexchange.com but I'm interested if it's legal.</p>

<p>I'm in a common wealth country but interested about the US as well.</p>

<p><strong>Authority</strong></p>

<p>A lot of this falls under life skills and common sense, rather than law <em>per se</em>. If you've lived and worked in skyscrapers and laboratories and corporate environments these are things you just come to know. Maybe some of this comes from being a Boy Scout growing up as well.</p>

<p><strong>Calling 911</strong></p>

<p>Usually there would be a law prohibiting employment retaliation against someone making a legitimate report to law enforcement, but an employer might reasonably suggest when it is and is not appropriate to do so. </p>

<p>Outright stopping someone from calling 911 when it is appropriate to do so would probably constitute obstruction of justice or something similar.</p>

<p><strong>Private Security</strong></p>

<p>There are a variety of tasks normally performed by private security in a business. </p>

<ul>
<li>Routine patrol to make sure that nothing is amiss and that only authorized people are in the building; </li>
<li>excluding trespassers with non-deadly force if necessary; </li>
<li>maintaining awareness of neighborhood security threats (e.g. protest marches, repeated crime incidents where employees go)</li>
<li>investigating property crimes on the property after reporting the to law enforcement for insurance purposes (which usually has a policy of not investigating small dollar crimes reported to them themselves); </li>
<li>maintenance and monitoring of security cameras; </li>
<li>organizing fire wardens, scheduling fire drills and scheduling real fire department inspections of the premises when required;</li>
<li>response to disturbances (if necessary notifying police);</li>
<li>confirming that doors that should be locked are locked; </li>
<li>alerting emergency services of fires and crimes in progress or observed;</li>
<li>greeting legitimate employees and guests;</li>
<li>supervising outside maintenance people; and</li>
<li>providing minor first aid, and getting someone to health care when an ambulance is not necessary and calling for one when it is not.</li>
</ul>

<p>Their objective is to serve the company's needs, but often, those heavily overlap with the public's need in the area of security and safety.</p>

<p><strong>Fire Wardens</strong></p>

<p>A "fire warden" in an office building is responsible for:</p>

<ul>
<li>passing on information from the fire department that employees in the fire warden's unit need to know;</li>
<li>to be alert to identify and remedy fire code violations that are identified in inspections (e.g. fire extinguishers that are no longer certified, alarm signals that are broken or need new batteries);</li>
<li>to understand and communicate how to respond to a fire alarm and to distinguish between scheduled tests of the equipment and true drills;</li>
<li>to supervise the conduct of fire drills and non-drill evacuations; </li>
<li>to make sure that everyone knows the meet up location following a true fire; and </li>
<li>to keep track of who gets out, who was never at work in the first place when there was an evacuation, and who was unable to escape. </li>
</ul>

<p>A "fire warden" is basically a responsible civilian who coordinates with the fire department which does real inspections and responds to real fires.</p>

<p>In contrast, any competent person calls the fire department when there is a real fire that requires  response and/or rescue.</p>

<p>Any competent person might put out a fire in progress, but a fire warden would be told standard operating procedure for follow up response after an emergency fire or incident is dealt with as a putting out a visible fire in a complex urban or commercial environment is often not sufficient to know that the threat is gone. </p>

<p>Often a fire warden would insist that the fire department be called even though there was no visible ongoing threat. This is particularly important in high rises, commercial kitchens and industrial buildings.</p>

<p>Considering that there would be good reasons for such a policy, it's unlikely that there's a specific law agaisnt it.</p>

<p>An in-house security/fire department is the appropriate organization to coordinate with external responders. It wouldn't be useful if the public Fire department arrives at a closed gate, for instance. The police department might find the company offices, but not know which building is building #7.</p>
