Another Fast-Food 911 Call: Is it a Sign of a Bigger Problem?

Another Fast-Food 911 Call: Is it a Sign of a Bigger Problem?

In the embed­ded CNN story we find another per­son mis­us­ing the 911 sys­tem to solve a seem­ingly insignif­i­cant prob­lem. Our first reac­tion is to prob­a­bly laugh or think what is wrong with this per­son but I think it’s the sign of a larger problem.


We need a stan­dard­ized nation­wide non–emer­gency num­ber. Many cities includ­ing my home Birm­ing­ham, Alabama use 311 for this. The sys­tem needs to work like the cur­rent 911 but  being non-emergency it could even be an auto­mated sys­tem that sim­ply routes based on your selection.

911 and 311 should still not be used as “cus­tomer ser­vice” but I think it could go a long way in end­ing the sens­less 911 calls and free up the sys­tem for real emer­gen­cies.

What are your thoughts?