Calling 9-1-1 on a Cell Phone

When calling 9-1-1 from a cell phone:

• Stay calm, speak clearly, and listen carefully to the call taker’s questions.
• Know your location - if uncertain about your location, describe any surroundings, landmarks, highway route number, closest exit, or anything that will help emergency personnel locate you. 
• A Public Safety Answering Point (PSAP) will initially answer your call - in most cases you will be transferred to another public safety agency that will send out the appropriate emergency response.
• If traveling in a vehicle, know its make, model, color and license plate number.
• Know the number of the mobile phone you are calling from.
• Describe the nature of the emergency and be sure to give your name.
• Be aware of your wireless signal limitations - if moving, your call may be lost.
• If you are at home and have both a cell phone and a regular home phone, call 9-1-1 from your regular phone.

Address Doesn’t Show on Screen

Thinking of going totally “cellular” by giving up your home telephone?

You may not be alone. Thanks to a new ruling from the Federal Communication Commission - which allows consumers to transfer the telephone number to their cell phone - more people may decide to give up the “land line” altogether.

But we would like residents to know the difference when it comes to dialing 9-1-1. Through enhanced 9-1-1, which is available when someone calls from a home or business telephone, the address automatically pops up on the screen at the police/fire headquarters. Other pertinent information that is on file also appears such as whether the caller is hearing or vision impaired or is in a wheelchair and has mobility concerns.

But if a resident dials 9-1-1 from a cell phone, no address appears.  In fact, that call doesn’t come directly to the Greenfield Police Department but to the Milwaukee County Sheriff’s Department (the PSAP for Milwaukee County) where the call taker receives the wireless telephone number and the location that is transmitting the call, not the specific home or business address. The Sheriff’s Department then transfers the call to the appropriate jurisdiction, based on the ability to determine the call’s actual location. This, of course, will add seconds and sometimes minutes to the time of response by appropriate emergency personnel.

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