When seconds matter during an emergency, the most important piece of information a 911 caller can provide isn't always what happened — it's where it happened.
That's the message Clark Regional Emergency Services Agency (CRESA) 911 Operations Manager Greg Rossmiller hopes residents remember when dialing 911, especially as more people rely on cellphones that don't always provide dispatchers with an exact location.
On CRESA’s social media, users may have seen a new social media campaign: “Where in the Clark?” The social media campaign focuses on helping people identify location details like street names, intersections, landmarks, mileposts and more throughout Clark County.
"The location is always the most important question. It is always the first question that we ask," Rossmiller said. "That's always got to be the first question that we ask because that's the most important thing. Because if we don't know what's happening, at least if we know where it's happening, we can send somebody to go help and check it out."
Rossmiller said about 90% of CRESA's emergency calls now come from cellphones. While modern technology can provide dispatchers with general location information, he said it isn't as precise as many people believe.
"I think, like in pop culture and some 911 shows and movies ... you see these things, you're like, 'Oh yeah, they're able to triangulate exactly where you are.' And that's just not the case," Rossmiller said.
Even in the best situations, he said, a cellphone's location may only narrow a caller's location to within 50 to 100 feet. In apartment complexes or other multi-unit buildings, that can still leave dispatchers searching several possible locations.
Because of that, Rossmiller encourages people to pay attention to where they are before an emergency happens.
Street signs, nearby businesses, utility poles, mailbox numbers and other landmarks can all help dispatchers pinpoint a caller's location if an address isn't immediately available. Dispatchers are trained to ask followup questions and piece together those clues, he added.
"Whatever it is that they see," Rossmiller said when asked what callers should report. "If somebody truly has no idea, there's things that we can do. We're going to be asking those kinds of questions, but just sometimes ... what do you see around you? If that's a mailbox and you can pull a number off that mailbox, sometimes that's really helpful."
After confirming a location, dispatchers ask a series of questions to determine the most appropriate response. Rossmiller said callers shouldn't mistake those questions as delays.
"Whenever you call 911, expect that you're going to be asked a series of questions, and those are designed to just try to help us figure out exactly how to prioritize the situation and what most appropriate resource for whatever your situation is," he said. "It's not to delay things or to frustrate people, it’s really just designed for us to get the most pertinent information that we need on the front end of this emergency or non-emergency response."
Those questions also help dispatchers determine whether police, firefighters, emergency medical personnel, behavioral health teams or other specialized resources should respond. Rossmiller noted that response policies also vary among police and fire agencies across Clark County, particularly for incidents such as non-injury traffic collisions.
Rossmiller also encouraged residents to understand the difference between calling 911 and 311.
For any fire or medical emergency, he said people should call 911, even if they believe the situation isn't serious.
On the law enforcement side, Rossmiller said situations involving immediate danger, threats or crimes in progress also belong on 911 because those calls receive the highest priority. By contrast, incidents such as discovering a vehicle break-in after the fact or ongoing neighborhood noise complaints are generally better suited for 311 because there is no immediate threat to life or property.
Rossmiller said preparation before an emergency can make all the difference. He encourages families to learn the addresses of homes and businesses they frequently visit and teach children how to communicate that information if they ever need to call for help.
"Teaching kids and young children where they are, helping them connect them to addresses ... can be really helpful, because we do get calls from kids regularly," Rossmiller said. "If an adult's having a medical problem and the only one there to call is a child, we want them to be able to have the info they need so that we can get the help started really fast."
