Minimizing false 911 dialing

[jazwinner]

To minimize (or even eliminate) the number of "hang-ups" when users inadvertently dial 911, can a delay be inserted in the route table that pauses 2 or 3 seconds before placing the call on the public network? The thinking is that this delay will give "accidental" 911 dialers the opportunity to hang-up before the call is actually placed, and yet not delay valid 911 calls from being connected. Thoughts? Ideas?

 

[lmb2]

I found it was much easier to change the outside dialing number to 8 instead of 9. A delay can cause an overly excited user in an emergency situation to think they have miss dialed if the ring isn't immediate.

 

[jazwinner]

Good point, but changing access code is out due to large number of users, corporate policy, etc. A delay of 2 seconds will should not be detected by users if ring-back can be immediate, too.

 

[paterson]

There are a few posts on this. If you don't want to change 9 to 8 for outside dialing, then you need to build a 911+x ARS misdial route.

Are you confortable/knowledgeable with ARS programming? What system is this?

 

[jazwinner]

It's an SX2000. I already have a "E" route over specific channels of a PRI. Both 911 and 9911 are routed this way.

 

[paterson]

Okay, You need to change the 911 route entry to have "unknown" in the digits to follow field. Check the "inter-digit" timer in the COS of your sets. This is how long the system will wait for more digits before processing the call.

Then you will need to build an ARS route that goes nowhere, done with COR.

Then create ARS digit entrys for the list below to go to that route.
9110 + 0 to follow
9111 + 0 to follow
9112 + 0 to follow
9113 + 0 to follow
9114 + 0 to follow
9115 + 0 to follow
9116 + 0 to follow
9117 + 0 to follow
9118 + 0 to follow
9119 + 0 to follow

As soon as the caller enters an extra digit after 911, the phone system will reject the call (fast busy).

The down side is that true 911 calls will have to endure the inter-digit timer before going out.

 

[paterson]

I have created a FAQs page for this. It should be up shortly.

 

[jazwinner]

Perfect - many thanks for the input!

 

[MitelInMyBlood]

We've done essentially the same thing except used system speed call entries for all the 911x numbers and then intercept them & sent to a voice mail menu tree that informs the caller that they appear to have accidentally dialed 911 and if this actually is an emergency call to press 5, otherwise hang up and recial.

If the caller presses 5 we send the call on to the PSAP. Really happens rarely that they need to be cut thru to 911. In 99.9% of all occurrences it is an accidental misdial.

 

[jazwinner]

It's understood that 99.9% are accidental (that's what the Morton Thiokol engineers said the O-rings reliability factor was designed for, too). We've checked with our legal folks: if a caller dials 911 (or 9911) with a *valid* emergency, then passes out (or is shot) before answering the decision tree via voice mail, you would be entirely liable in a wrongful death suit. If a guest used a phone and was unaware of the menu tree, same thing. I think we'll go with the timeouts, but I do appreciate all the input!

 

[MitelInMyBlood]

It works exactly the same way except you do not put any intercept routing in place if you don't want the voice mail option.

However, with the menu tree concept the "accidental" misdial still gets the opportunity to get to the PSAP whereas with the method you are looking at, the accidental misdial never gets there.

Your legal dept sounds as nuts as ours, mandating that we accept both 911 and 9-911 as valid. Fine, we can do it, but the sword cuts both ways. As you have discovered, with a 9+ dialing plan for local calls and 9+1 for LD, everyone in the building is ONE DIGIT away from placing a 911 call with every long distance call they make and your experience with the unacceptably high frequency of accidental misdials is going to wind up getting you fined.

Set your inter-digit timer at 5 seconds and build the misdial trap as paterson suggests or do it with system speed calls like we did.... either way you've got to stop the misdials and either method will do it.

Callers will not be happy with the interdigit timer squeezed down to 5 seconds, but any longer than 5 secs and you're going to have your valid 911 caller panicking.

Communications here is key. If you have a company nurse or medical center be sure to explain the 5-sec delay timer to them and encourage them to use 9-911 for emergency calls (0r 911#)(pound).

 

[MitelInMyBlood]

Something else....
As I said in the above post, Communications is key

Spread the word via company newsletters, postings in the break rooms, etc. explaining to users that they should never hang-up!!!!!!!!!! on 911. If they have accidentally mis-dialed, stay on the line and tell the PSAP that you've accidentally mis-dialed.

 

[jazwinner]

Absoutly re: hangups. We've also installed the Tone Commander 9140 across the PRI route which both delivers a pop-up message to 10 workstations across the LAN, but gives us better management of ANI transforms to the Intrado database. Some communities (police/sheriff) are cool about false calls - so long as the offending party stays on the line and says so. If the caller abandonds the call, they always dispatch the uniforms.