When 911 is dialed, your call is supposed to be routed to the nearest E911 Center. If all lines are tied up at that center, or if there were a GPS malfunction, your call could be routed to a different city, county or possibly a different state. When the E911 Dispatcher answers, always specify the town or city and state you are calling from. Do not expect to call 911 while driving in Randlett and have the 911 Dispatcher connect you to 911 in Chicago or Dallas because someone sent you a text that they see something suspicious. That’s TV, not real life and the system does not really work that way.
Be sure that everyone in your home or workplace knows and understands the difference in north, south, east, or west. Precious minutes are lost when someone gives the wrong address to dispatchers and the incorrect information is relayed to first responders. There is a huge difference in the 600 block of West South Boundary and the 600 block of East South Boundary, and even a bigger difference if you said you are on Central Street and don’t specify if it’s Temple or Walters when calling 911. Some of the smaller community’s addressing systems are not uniform. In these areas it is mandatory to know street names and cross street names. Not every officer or First Responder is from the area, and saying up the road from Joe Bob’s cousin won’t get help to you quickly.
All residential and business structures are required to have the street address numbers of all structures displayed in a manner where the numbers are clearly visible from the street. The numbers need to be at least three inches (3”) and no taller than six inches (6”) in height, and be one and one-half inches (1.5”) in width. The numbers must be visible from the road or street in front of the property. The address number sign should be placed on the building facing to road or if the structure is too far from the road to be clearly seen, the sign may be placed on the mailbox or on a post by the entrance.
Unmarked or improperly marked addresses on houses and buildings has become a huge safety concern. When the property is not clearly marked, fire response time increases significantly as does Emergency Medical Services. If you were to have an emergency, would the first responders be able to locate your house? Could the Police or Sheriff Deputies locate the address of the emergency when there are no numbers or the numbers have faded, peeled off or missing?
If you have an actual emergency, CALL 9-1-1. Do not call local Fire Departments, Police, or Sheriff business lines. CALL 9-1-1. Calling 911 in an emergency will get the fastest response from Fire Department, Sheriff, Police, and Ambulance, but only call 911 for an actual emergency. An Emergency is any situation that requires immediate assistance from law enforcement, fire department, or ambulance. Calling 911 for anything else could lengthen the response time for actual emergencies and could be considered abuse of the system. Abuse of the 911 system is a chargeable offense. Calls that are not actual emergencies should be directed to the business lines of the respective departments during normal business hours.
Questions about E911 can be addressed to Sheriff Tim King 875-2391 between the hours of 8 am and 5 pm.