WHEN SHOULD YOU CALL 911?
Calls to 911 should be reserved for emergencies such as:

A serious medical emergency (chest pains, seizures, bleeding, etc.)

Any type of fire (structure, vehicle, brush, etc.)

Any crime in-progress (robbery, burglary, prowler, fights, etc.)

Any other life threatening situations (traffic accident with injuries, etc.).


WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU CALL 911?
In order to correctly assess the situation for a prioritized response, you will be asked certain questions which are vital to the safety of the caller and the responding Officer.


The Location
When you call 911, the dispatcher is automatically provided with the phone number and the location that you are calling from. You will be asked to verify this information since quite often individuals call 911 from locations other than where the incident is occurring. If you call 911 from a cell phone, this vital information is not provided. It is very important that you provide the phone number and location to the dispatcher when using a cell phone.


The Problem
The dispatcher will ask if your emergency is related to Police, Fire or Rescue. At this point you should give a quick description of what occurred. The dispatcher will then ask a series of questions which are extremely important to the proper handling of the call. These may include:

Is anyone injured?

How long ago did the incident occur?

Were there weapons involved and if so, what type?

Did the suspect flee, and if so, which direction?

What was the mode of transportation, a car, bike or on foot?

If a vehicle was involved, what was the description and what was the direction of travel?

What was the physical description of the suspect?

What was the clothing description?

Although these may seem like an unreasonable number of questions during an emergency, they are very important to the Officer responding. For example, if a Burglary has just occurred and the suspect flees, the Officer has a much better chance of apprehending the suspect if he or she receives a good description of the suspect and the direction that was taken. More importantly, if the incident in question involved a weapon, the life of the Officer may depend on the information given.



One common misconception is that the caller to 911 thinks that if the dispatcher is still on the line, the Police are not yet on the way. This is not true. During a true emergency, the dispatcher alerts the units to the situation and they begin to respond in an emergency mode. As the dispatcher continues to receive information from the caller, the additional information is passed on to the Officers who are already on the way.

It is very important that you stay on the line during a call to 911. The dispatcher will continue to ask you questions while the police are enroute.


WHAT SHOULD I DO IF I CALL 911 BY MISTAKE?
If you call 911 by mistake, DO NOT HANG UP. Stay on the line and explain that you do not actually have an emergency. If a caller to 911 hangs up without stating the problem, the caller must be contacted in order to ensure that no actual emergency exists. This may involve the dispatching of an officer to your home or place of business in order to ensure that a problem does not exist.


IF I NEED THE POLICE, BUT IT'S NOT AN EMERGENCY, WHAT NUMBER SHOULD I USE?
If you need the police, but it is not of an emergency nature, please call our non emergency line at 812-794-2496. Examples of calls which should be placed to the non emergency line are:


Loud music or barking dogs.

Late reported incidents such as a theft with no suspect information.

Requests for information.

To report the malfunctioning of traffic signals.