The first question that they ask is: “911. Where is the emergency?”
That varies from PSAP (Public Safety Answering Point) to PSAP. Local policy dictates what the first thing said to the caller is. And while I believe it is the case that most PSAP's use "where is your emergency" as their first question these days, some still use "what is your emergency" instead. This is one of those things that people who work in public safety (especially dispatchers) love to have religious arguments about.
And just to go back to the point about emergency / non-emergency calls: people call 911 for all sorts of shit that isn't an emergency. And while I've been gone from dispatching for a while, from what I understand, this problem has only gotten worse over the years. Unfortunately 911 has gone from "the number I call if somebody is dying or something is on fire" to "the number I call if there is anything going on that I don't understand or don't like, and want to demand that Somebody Needs To Do Something About It." :-(
Source: former 911 dispatcher and firefighter, and have called 911 a handful of times over the years.
That varies from PSAP (Public Safety Answering Point) to PSAP. Local policy dictates what the first thing said to the caller is. And while I believe it is the case that most PSAP's use "where is your emergency" as their first question these days, some still use "what is your emergency" instead. This is one of those things that people who work in public safety (especially dispatchers) love to have religious arguments about.
And just to go back to the point about emergency / non-emergency calls: people call 911 for all sorts of shit that isn't an emergency. And while I've been gone from dispatching for a while, from what I understand, this problem has only gotten worse over the years. Unfortunately 911 has gone from "the number I call if somebody is dying or something is on fire" to "the number I call if there is anything going on that I don't understand or don't like, and want to demand that Somebody Needs To Do Something About It." :-(
Source: former 911 dispatcher and firefighter, and have called 911 a handful of times over the years.