Officials Try to Clear Up Confusion About 911 Calls
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Confusion about the District's revamped 911 call center has spread across the city in recent weeks as misinformation has been posted on online community message boards and city officials have spent time parsing the definition of "emergency."
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District officials launched an expanded 311 call center yesterday aimed at making customer service more efficient. But the new system angered a key D.C. Council member who warned that it could slow the city's response to emergencies.
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ROUND ROCK, Texas - Police in this Austin suburb were stumped for hours by the 49 emergency calls that kept coming in from an unregistered cell phone. The caller would say nothing before hanging up, sometimes after a brief giggle.
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At the Mobile & Wireless World conference, several university CIOs said that in the wake of the shootings at Virginia Tech, theyre being asked to find new ways to inform students and employees about emergencies.
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Not quite the usual conference call.
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A hospital tries to contact patients after admitting errors were made by a pathologist in diagnosing cases of cancer.
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Security vendors are trying to make it easier for emergency personnel to ID themselves at the scene of a disaster.
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Not all 999 calls will be dealt with by ambulances under changes aimed at eliminating misuse of the service.
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State's top cop is gathering information about damage that may have been caused by covert attempts to unearth leaks to the media.
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New York City wants to expand its 911 call center to accept digital photos and video clips of accidents and crimes -- would the data swamp the system? By the Associated Press.
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The FBI is looking for someone sending bogus information that caused the National Weather Service to issue unnecessary warnings, and forecasters worried that such alarms won't be taken seriously, authorities said Monday.
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By Ana Ribeiro, The Roanoke Times, Va.  Feb. 24--Early Thursday afternoon, Rob Shields got a phone call at work that anybody would dread.   It was the Roanoke Fire-EMS Department.   But there was no fire.
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Coastguards warn lives are put at risk by people not knowing who to phone for help, as a safety campaign begins.
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Louisiana emergency crews discovered they still had trouble communicating with various agencies during a two-day mock hurricane evacuation, officials said Wednesday.
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Passing motorists and a store worker frantically called authorities about a fire behind a furniture store the night nine firefighters perished inside, according to 911 tapes and transcripts released Thursday. An employee said the area was where workers took smoke breaks.
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While TV viewers and radio listeners have long suffered through ear-piercing emergency-alert tests, the system has had a spotty record in actual crises. That's why critics are leery of plans to expand the system to cell phones and PCs. By Randy Dotinga.
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There have always been problems with distributing urgent public safety information. These problems show up, over and over, with every hurricane, tornado, flood and wildfire. At this moment in history, problems fall in three areas of responsibility (and, for that matter, responsiveness):  The old official channels (radio, TV, newspapers) are scaling back on live news coverage (or on news coverage, period) The new official channels (web sites and services, &quot;reverse 911&quot;) are still, as we've been saying since 1995, &quot;under construction&quot;.  The new unofficial channels (cell phones, blogs, RSS feeds, phone trees) are still no substitute for the Real Thing, whatever it will become. \