911: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO)

911, you know, what you call right after WebMD tells you you won't be able to get it out on your own. 911 is such an important number that we do everything we can to help kids remember it, from posters in the classroom to toy phones to popular people. Public service announcements produced by local fire stations Hello Mrs. Clark, welcome to Station 4, so who knows when to call 911. You should call 911 if a person is seriously injured or in danger right now, if they are not unsure if this is a real emergency and there are no adults. around it's a good idea to make the call now, that's true, but sometimes you should call even if there are adults around, for example, if someone is dying and the only adult is Matthew McCon, maybe don't leave the decision up to him, oh, you're bleeding out there. horse, okay, I'll tell you what to do, let's get some bongos and some herbal love and tell that open wound to come together.

Man, we did it. We make approximately 240 million 911 calls each year and dispatchers do an incredible job talking to people. during childbirth, CPR, kidnappings and home invasions, in fact, we are so used to depending on them that we even call when we don't have an emergency service 911, where is your emergency? I'm sorry, but are the fireworks still on? I'm sorry I can't call 911 because I'm sorry, thank you, you're welcome. I think I'm overdosing on as much SCH as my wife. We made brownies and I think we're dead. Time is passing very, very, very, very slow, oh yes, I am. crawling because I have a baby lizard in my house and he crawled on my um printer the baby crawled on your printer not a baby lizard oh a lizard where's your emergency?

I'm at the door, that's a little boy named Richie. I've finished now. are you done going to the bathroom, oh are you done going to the bathroom, okay, okay, now I know it sounds adorable, but that kid may have made such a mess in that bathroom that you had to call 911, yeah, this is it Richie, you guys have some kind of emergency. Cleaning equipment you can send because I'm done going to the bathroom. We have a lot of faith in 911, but the system can fail more than you think, and when it does, people can die as a result.

Chanel Anderson was delivering newspapers in the dark. In the suburbs of Atlanta, when she found out about this pond, she knew exactly where the family was and bville BV and what Fairway H, the street, Mrs. Fairway. I don't have that, but 911 dispatchers can't find her on her map, it took first responders. Almost 20 minutes to get to her, she died because a system we hoped would save our lives failed, she called 911 and lost valuable time simply because dispatchers are having trouble determining her location. Not unusual, the FCC estimates that improving location accuracy could save more than 10,000 lives a year.

What seems like a worthwhile goal the people who make emergency calls are on the very short list of things we expect to find 100% of the time is that the clitoris and Nemo he's not a bad fish he's not a bad fish You're just curious and capable of more than you think and the obstacles for 911 centers don't end there depending on where you live, they can also be underfunded, understaffed and full of outdated technology, which is fine if you're describing a Radio Shack, but it's a little scary when you're describing a place that handles life and death situations, so

tonight

let's focus on how we got to this point.

Now location issues have a lot to do with the fact that 70 to 80% of all 911 calls now come from cell phones. phones and that has become a problem. When everyone used landlines they could simply match the call to your billing address and know exactly where it was, but now you could be anywhere unless of course you have AT&T because then you can only get reception by being in a chair. right next to your living room window as long as it's not cloudy and while 911 centers get location information from wireless service providers it varies wildly, sometimes they may only get the cell tower at through which your call is routed and that is why there are possibilities of receiving them throughout the country. quickly get your exact whereabouts ranges from 10% to 95% just watch a reporter test a dispatch center in Virginia 911 work on your emergency Hi, I'm Jeff Rosson from NBC News, I just want to know if you can tell me where you are our location on your computer showing 4641 W Road, which is not here at all, it's about 4 miles away and we're standing at the 911 Center, that's right down there, oh that's not good, you never want to be. in a situation where you have to tell someone that I'm actually inside you right now and if you're thinking, if you're thinking, wait, wait a minute, I can find my location on my cell phone, well, you're not alone.

Dispatchers wonder the same thing. I can sign up for Facebook and it will tell you exactly what building I am in. I can be at the hockey game and it tells me I'm at First Niagara Center. I sign up for Facebook, but when he calls. At 911 we don't get that precise location information so the technology is out there it just isn't getting T right now that's a good point because even the Domino's app can tell where you are and they have mastered the technology to make a pizza tasty. So we asked everyone from the FCC to Public Safety groups to industry trade groups why it seems like Ubers can find you better than ambulances and there doesn't seem to be a simple, generally satisfactory answer, which They told us they were services like Uber.

It's not always 100% accurate, especially in rural areas, plus emergency workers would like to have technology that can tell them what floor of a building you are on and no one seems to know how to do that yet, and although the wireless industry claims to be working. toward incorporating some of what Uber uses in 911 location services, there appears to be no guarantee when it will be ready for widespread use. What we do know is that the FCC has ordered that they improve accuracy so that by 2021 carriers will provide a usable location for callers. 80% of the time, which sounds impressive until you put it like that, 6 years from now, 911 still might not be able to find one in five emergency callers.

That's not good enough. The sentence in 6 years, you may not be able to find one. of five of you is only acceptable if you're talking to the members of One Direction and I'm sorry Nile but one of you has to be JC Shaz and look, fixing the location issue isn't going to fix everything. 911 is like that. fragmented, there are currently 5,899 dispatch centers because each county or municipality in an area can have its own and also there is no guarantee that two dispatch centers use the same technology or have a system to work together and none of this is favored due to the fact that in six states there is no specific state entity in charge of coordinating 911 services and, while Georgia law requires an actual committee to help develop 911 plans, it is not exactly a robust body, this It's the Georgia 911 Standing Advisory Committee, everyone will notice. 15 seats are empty in the EMP, there is no one at the microphone and there is nothing on the agenda that this committee has not met for years because there is currently not a single appointed member, how is that possible?

We even asked and a spokesperson claimed that the committee actually has members, but could not confirm that it is active and did not respond when we asked for the names of those members. Come on, you could at least make up a name like I don't know John Miller off the top of your head. clearly it's not difficult and there are a lot of things that committee could be doing, for example, for more than a decade, the federal government has been talking about something called Next Generation 911, which basically upgrades dispatch centers to a network based on IP and allows them to do things like accept videos and text messages and that could save lives in situations where you can't make a phone call, like domestic violence, a home invasion or a heart attack in a library.

I mean, make sure you get some help, but have some respect for each other. customers, but so far no state has fully implemented NextGen 911, which makes no sense. This would make everything much easier for dispatchers, whose jobs are frankly quite difficult, some days it depends on the outcome, it's good, other days it's not, sometimes it's really not. You don't know the outcome and you go home at night and wonder if it's something you could have done that would have prevented this person from dying or this person from getting hurt and then there are other times where you could save a life and you go. you get home and you know you pat yourself on the back and you drive home and you cut off the music and you say wow, I did something really good, okay, I mean it's a broader extreme, most of the experience in our day jobs for me the difference between a good day and a bad day is whether there is hazelnut spread in the break room or whether Janice from accounting drank it all again.

Damn, Janice, that's not even milk, that's disgusting and that level of stress combined with financing. the shortage has caused dispatch centers to be understaffed, in fact, right now go to Google, put in 911 understaffed and your city and see what comes up because in a lot of places there will be headlines like these, it seems that 911 staffing problems are one of those ridiculous things. Several cities have like a Chinatown or a statue of someone who is racist and if your local dispatch center is understaffed, when you call, the first voice you hear may be this: You have called Memphis 911, all operators are busy , so stay on the line you have contacted the Cincinnati 911 Center your call will be answered as soon as possible you have contacted the new Haner County 911 we are currently experiencing high volumes of emergency calls you have contacted emergency dispatch 911 don't hang up if you're in danger put the phone down and go somewhere safe oh oh go somewhere safe why didn't I think that I'm in danger here when in reality I could just be going somewhere safe?

I shouldn't have wasted your time by calling in the first place and some of that call The volume is up to us The ubiquity of cell phones means that if 50 people see a fire, 911 could receive 50 calls and that adds up to a tension still largest in the system, approximately 84 million 911 calls per year. All over the country people dial full but they dial 911 136. times when you get a call and it's from uh what we call butt dial um there's really not much you can do when I tell them butt dial they always ring a little irritated, I mean, it's kind of a waste of your time that you know, okay, make sure you don't call again, okay, honestly, I'm willing to bet that guy hears the same response from almost anyone he turns to. calls by accident or on purpose, so look, we have an outdated and disjointed system populated by workers who are understandably sick of listening to people's butts and what makes this even more frustrating is that almost everyone's phone bill has a line like this that you might assume goes directly to funding 911 centers, but the FCC rate report showed that at least since 2008. 20 states have diverted those dollars elsewhere, so probably depending on where you live , 911 might be a joke in your town, to quote Jan Jan.

I mean, I know it's a Public Enemy song, but did you know Jiran Jan covered it? welcome because you haven't heard that discontented hymn properly until you hear it performed by a white man named Simon from Hartfordshire. The point is that we are routinely raiding 911 to pay for other things. New York State, which has experienced multiple breakdowns in its 911. The systems received more than $185 million in fees in 2014, but then diverted $77 million to the state's general fund, where it could be spent on virtually anything and yet , when the governor was asked about this, he ruled it out, is that something in the budget process that will take a look at whether it is right for us to divert this money.

It is not a problem that has arisen. And I haven't heard any local legislators raise it, but if it comes up, we'll look into it. just came up B lawmakers have raised the issue repeatedly since you've been in office and c not diverting money from 911 is one of those things they shouldn't tell you not to do, like siphoning gas from a fire truck. put on your dirt bike oh look, no one has told me this is wrong so if you'll excuse me I'm going to spin some donuts in the Arby's parking lot, but this attitude from Blas is indicative of the fact that until we are explicitly Front to the challenges that 911 faces, it seems that we are not going to do anything about it and suchMaybe the problem is that from a young age we are taught to take 911 for granted, so maybe it's time for that to change, so you should call 911 if a person is seriously injured or in danger, any questions, yeah, like that If I call i11 you will come help me.

I'm sure I'll try honey but I have to be honest if you call from a cell phone and I don't know your address most of the time we're going to have a hard time knowing exactly where you are that's scary well don't worry for the year 2021 we will find you every time, four out of five times, wait, how can you? I don't know how to find myself. I can order pizza from my phone right now and they know exactly where I am. Is not the same. I have just done it. There's a pizza on the way.

You know what I'm going to call a dispatcher for? come explain this to you kids, firefighter Bill said you had some questions about why we can't find you all the time, yeah, why is that okay? We simply don't have the technology to come out on the positive side. Places have pretty good state systems like Maine, hey my grandma lives in Maine so she should be fine, my grandma lives in Georgia, ooh she's totally fed why don't they try harder? hard I only worked a 12 hour shift I helped deliver three babies I saved a family from a fire I pulled a lizard out of a printer and I hear 15 different Butts oh yeah, well we'll see how You laugh a lot when I hear someone's butt and You all burn to death in your beds.

It's so hot that the flames are in my body. Okay, who wants? P for Dalmatian 911, we will be there when you need us. some restrictions apply availability may be limited offer not guaranteed in all states actual response time may vary please contact a medical professional If you experience a wait time of more than 4 hours