Call 911, pay big fees!

[bearphoto]

KFI AM radio had a segment on today talking about the 911 calls. They stated that many cities now (at least in CA) are charging the callers of 911. The example they gave was the City of Corona, which is located in Riverside County, east of Anaheim was a woman who witnessed a serious crash on the 91 freeway where an occupant was ejected. She called 911 on her cell and later received a bill from the City of Corona for a total of $300.00, and statements that if she did not pay it she would be taken to collection.

After hearing that, i sent the Mayor of Corona a nasty email that if this was true, she should be ashamed and should step down and that we the people are tired of the greedy politicians and the continued theft of our money. We already pay for basic emergency services such as police and fire but this call was not even for her, she was just a witness.

Apparently there are other cities that are charging 911 callers except for the reporting of crimes and the reporting of emergencies. I.E., you call for fire because you fell of the ladder and broke your leg, in addition to any ambulance response or transportation, you will get a bill for your 911 call.

If you agree this is BS and your city is doing that, you might think about getting mad!

Is this more BS or what?

[moparmaniac07]

Re: Call 911, pay big fees!

It is bs, that's one of the reasons I prefer to handle things on my own. That, and the police never show up to investigate arson, so whatever, I'm not calling them anymore.

[oldsman71]

Re: Call 911, pay big fees!

> this sounds like a bad deal!

[TheSilverBuick]

Re: Call 911, pay big fees!

That is Bull. It's one thing if the caller calls because their order and McD's was wrong, but legitimate call that requires first responders showing up should never be charged.

[oldsman71]

Re: Call 911, pay big fees!

It is bs, that's one of the reasons I prefer to handle things on my own. That, and the police never show up to investigate arson, so whatever, I'm not calling them anymore.

where do live that they wont check arson??
there is a place in kansas city MO called swope park, and a
friend called the cops when his car got broken into they
wouldnt come there at night!!

[moparmaniac07]

Re: Call 911, pay big fees!

On the outskirts of a rural town with a state police barracks 20 minutes away. I don't know if they got lost and couldn't find us, or they didn't think it was a big deal because we had the fire under control. Either way, they said they'd send somebody out and no one showed up.

[Mr4Speed]

Re: Call 911, pay big fees!

Saw yesterday that the city of Tracy was doing that. You can pay a $48 fee in advance but if you don't it's $300. I think it's a California thing. Our local government here is hopelessly corrupt and incompetent, but the stuff cali politicians have the nerve to try would make them blush. If they tried that here city hall would burn to the ground.

[dieselgeek]

Re: Call 911, pay big fees!

Hold on dudes - there is a LOT more to this than the media is letting you guys know. we recently went through this in Omaha and, after understanding the real problem behind it - I agree with the policy completely...



From my understanding (I deal with telecom carriers on the OC192 level - that's millions of concurrent calls at any given time) - the whole reason these new regs exist is because of company PBXes (phone switches) haven't been regulated - up until now - to capture "911" calls that are dialled accidentally. At most companies with their own telephony systems, you have to dial "9, 1, Area Code + Number" to make a call. Our company alone - just the Omaha facilities, which house about 1700 telephone stations - was passing over 100 "hang up" 911 calls PER MONTH to the city. Someone would fat finger their "9, 1, area code" into a "9,1,1" then hang up real fast. The city by law has to track down the source of that call and follow up on it...


On top of that, all cities had to beef up their 911 systems to accept new data from new phone systems, mostly driven by Mobile phone installations, so that when someone dials 911 with a cell phone, they can track the PHYSICAL location of that caller. Again, by law. This is EXPENSIVE technology.

Now, I was told by our telecom dept that the "fees" are charged to the companies like mine who cause 99.9% of the problem. We installed new equipment that "catches" a 911 call, asks the user to press "1" if they want to make a true emergency call, so we could avoid the newly implemented fines. I was also told that the fines would also be charged to 911 callers, but DROPPED whenever the call was deemed "legitimate." Smaller companies, however, tend NOT to do the same thing we're doing - so the fines are targeted at them. We spent a few million upgrading our PBX's to handle this problem... not everyone can afford that.

Is it REALLY the case that these individuals making 911 calls are actually being forced to pay these bills? or are they calling their local news BEFORE they contact the phone company to find that they can have the charges dropped? Or is it more media hype?

[Abrasive]

Re: Call 911, pay big fees!

It is bs, that's one of the reasons I prefer to handle things on my own. That, and the police never show up to investigate arson, so whatever, I'm not calling them anymore.

where do live that they wont check arson??
there is a place in kansas city MO called swope park, and a
friend called the cops when his car got broken into they
wouldnt come there at night!!

Your friend has balls of steel. I wouldn't go to Swope Park at night either! LOL!

[studemax]

Re: Call 911, pay big fees!

there is a place in kansas city MO called swope park, and a friend called the cops when his car got broken into they wouldnt come there at night!!

Can you blame them?
Swope Park is scary dark with all the trees, and it's basically a road in and a road out.
Great place for an ambush if you ask me.

[bearphoto]

Re: Call 911, pay big fees!

Hold on dudes - there is a LOT more to this than the media is letting you guys know. we recently went through this in Omaha and, after understanding the real problem behind it - I agree with the policy completely...



From my understanding (I deal with telecom carriers on the OC192 level - that's millions of concurrent calls at any given time) - the whole reason these new regs exist is because of company PBXes (phone switches) haven't been regulated - up until now - to capture "911" calls that are dialled accidentally. At most companies with their own telephony systems, you have to dial "9, 1, Area Code + Number" to make a call. Our company alone - just the Omaha facilities, which house about 1700 telephone stations - was passing over 100 "hang up" 911 calls PER MONTH to the city. Someone would fat finger their "9, 1, area code" into a "9,1,1" then hang up real fast. The city by law has to track down the source of that call and follow up on it...


On top of that, all cities had to beef up their 911 systems to accept new data from new phone systems, mostly driven by Mobile phone installations, so that when someone dials 911 with a cell phone, they can track the PHYSICAL location of that caller. Again, by law. This is EXPENSIVE technology.

Now, I was told by our telecom dept that the "fees" are charged to the companies like mine who cause 99.9% of the problem. We installed new equipment that "catches" a 911 call, asks the user to press "1" if they want to make a true emergency call, so we could avoid the newly implemented fines. I was also told that the fines would also be charged to 911 callers, but DROPPED whenever the call was deemed "legitimate." Smaller companies, however, tend NOT to do the same thing we're doing - so the fines are targeted at them. We spent a few million upgrading our PBX's to handle this problem... not everyone can afford that.

Is it REALLY the case that these individuals making 911 calls are actually being forced to pay these bills? or are they calling their local news BEFORE they contact the phone company to find that they can have the charges dropped? Or is it more media hype?

We all know there are bogus 911 calls and hangups. Thats nothing new. I can agree to a fee to those, that is reasonable. But, as a witness as in the case reported on KFI, that would be pure bogus bs revenue generating and i'd dare them to try and collect from me on that.

Media hype? I dont know, one can assume the radio station checked the story out, who knows but i will not be surprised to hear it is true for California. There is so much corruptness going on its just time to stand up and tell them we wont take their b.s. anymore.

Its funny, when the California Highway Patrol handled all cell 911 calls in the state, this was not an issue. Of course the bogus calls were happening then too. Now the local city police/fire departments take over most cell 911 calls and all of a sudden there is a financial crisis and the need for more fees. Not gonna fly.

[Scott Liggett]

Re: Call 911, pay big fees!

On the outskirts of a rural town with a state police barracks 20 minutes away. I don't know if they got lost and couldn't find us, or they didn't think it was a big deal because we had the fire under control. Either way, they said they'd send somebody out and no one showed up.

When I lived in Sacramento I was assaulted by a guy who was zooted up on crank and was all paranoid just for looking in his direction. I was working at the time and several people witnessed it and called the police before I did. It took Sacramento Sheriff's nine hours to show up to take a report. I was hanging around the office with a broken elbow for them to show up and finally got pissed and went to the ER. They got all pissy with my boss and then even with me when they finally got to the ER that I wasn't around when they showed up. I gave that dickhead sheriff a few choice words. So did the ER staff.

[IRONHEAD]

Re: Call 911, pay big fees!

the catch is they fine you. then you have to prove it was a "needed call"
the other issue . is if the dial 9 for an outside line is such an issue..
why not force the phone systems to change that to 8/6/7 whatever..
it seem easier than the .. "if your really in need of help ,dial one..
most times you don't have the time to deal with that menu drop down..
whats next.. a fee. because someone beat you to calling 911, so your call wasn't "deamed" needed..
all this is going to do. is cause people to not call 911..
besides the fact that the 991 operators are jokes..
I call the police direct line.. no b/s questions.. it's straight forward and quick

[SuperBuickGuy]

Re: Call 911, pay big fees!

not a terribly bright move by Corona.... police depend on people calling in problems - it saves them huge amounts of resources when the citizens are their eyes - now people will hesitate to call.... never a good thing.... but the politicians really don't care - they know if someone dies because they didn't call 911 the politician won't pay the price - they'll blame the victim....

this fight has raged for awhile in the search and rescue community with the new transponders - if it's accidentally tripped, do you charge? here in the NW... no, they would rather deal with the occasional false call then miss the real one..... and it's the same with the 911 callers - false callers could be charged with filing a false police report; then it's clear it's not a charge on 911 calls, rather a tax on the stupid.

[67prostreet]

Re: Call 911, pay big fees!

If you call 911 they have to come, but you Do Not have to get in the ambulance if you are so able. The ride alone can cost thousands.