Say where you are first

The first thing the call-taker needs is not what happened. It is where you are. Many people say it: give the address before the story, so help can be sent while the rest is being asked. One person adds the other reason — if you collapse halfway through the call, they still know where to go.

When you call 911 or 999, say where you are first — and if you called by mistake, stay on the line and say so.

Where, said so a stranger can find it

Your phone may send a location on its own, but do not count on it. Two conversations say mobile location is often too rough to find a door, and people who worked the calls are specific about it: one dispatcher describes a call that could only be narrowed to a sixteen-block area, and a former ambulance controller says they still confirm the address out loud because the automatic location is not fully reliable and callers get their own address wrong. The US National Emergency Number Association says the same thing in its own way: the location shown on the call-taker’s screen is something they will ask you to confirm.

So say it the way a stranger would need it: the number and the street, the town, the flat or floor or room, and which door. If you do not know the address, give the nearest crossroads, a landmark, a business name, or the road and the last exit or junction you passed. In a hotel, the hotel’s name and your room number — the second question below is about the room phone. There is a page here, Light the number, about making your house findable once the crew is on your street.

Then follow the call-taker. The US association’s advice is to stay calm, give your name, phone number and the address where help is needed, answer the call-taker’s questions, and stay on the phone until they tell you to hang up. In the UK, the first question on a 999 call is which service you need — police, fire, ambulance or coastguard — and then the location comes next. One person here argues against volunteering the address before you are asked, because some call centres type answers into a system in a fixed order; another answers that saying the location first is what gets help moving. Both can be true on the same call: have the location ready as the first thing out of your mouth, and then answer what you are asked, in the order you are asked it.

If you called by mistake

Stay on the line and say so. Some people say it outright, and the US national association’s advice matches it: if you call 9-1-1 by mistake, do not hang up; tell the call-taker what happened. Here is the reason. A call that hangs up looks, from the other end, like someone who was cut off — or stopped. Some people say the call-taker then has to call you back, and if you do not answer, send someone to check; one person warns that some areas skip the callback and send someone straight away. Explaining takes a few seconds.

It is not an offence. Some people are clear that there is no fine for an honest misdial; the police may still come to the door, and if they do, it is a check that you are safe and not being made to say it was a mistake — someone here asked exactly what happens if a caller is forced to say that, which is why the check exists. Whether they come even after you explain depends on your area, and people disagree about how often it happens; the rules are local. What the US association calls against the law in most places is something else: prank calls, and its definition of a prank call includes calling 911 and hanging up, which is one more reason to stay on and explain. One person adds that repeated accidental calls can bring a fine.

If you did hang up, answer the callback. One person warns that the call centre’s number can show up as spam or unknown on your phone, so pick up an unknown call in the minutes after. And some people point out that a phone with no service can still dial 911 in the United States — one of them warns about old phones handed to small children as toys — and one adds that such a phone cannot be called back, so on that phone, staying on the line is the only way to explain.

The embarrassment is real, and people describe it — the police at the door over a pocket-dial. One person says accidental calls come in by the hundreds a day. The person who answers may well have taken several already that day. What makes the work harder is the hang-up.

To make it less likely: phones and some watches have emergency shortcuts — several presses of a side button, or two buttons held together — and the people describe setting them off in a pocket, at the gym, shaking a bottle of juice. Look in your phone’s emergency settings to see what yours does, so you know, and change it only if you are sure. In offices where you dial 9 for an outside line, one person says a slip onto 9-1-1 often reaches emergency services by accident; another says the installer can change the outside-line digit.

If you cannot talk

In the United States, the national association’s rule is to call when you can and text when you cannot. Text to 911 is available in some areas and not others, so it is worth checking with your local 911 service now. If you do text, put your location and the kind of help first, in full words, and be ready to answer questions. If you can call but not speak, leave the line open: one person says call-takers are trained to treat a silent call as a possible emergency. Another person describes a call-taker losing patience with a silent caller trapped in a car, and was told in reply that this was unprofessional. Keep the line open anyway.

In the UK, the police complaints body’s guide explains what happens. On a mobile, speak if you can, even in a whisper; you may be asked to cough or tap the keys. If you still cannot, you may be put through to an automated police message that asks you to press 55 — do that while it plays, because if you do not, the call is ended; if you do, you are connected to the police, who will ask yes-or-no questions. Pressing 55 does not tell them where you are. On a landline, the call is put through to the police if there is doubt, and the line can stay open for 45 seconds if you put the phone down. If you are deaf, hard of hearing or cannot speak, you can text 999 in the UK, but only after registering your phone — text the word “register” to 999 now, before you need it; the relay service can also connect you to 999 on 18000.

One more check to make now: some phones’ emergency shortcut plays a loud alarm as it calls. Some people warn that matters if you are ever hiding from someone. Find out what yours does while you are safe.

If you might pass out before help arrives

If you are alone and something is badly wrong — chest pain, a severe reaction, the feeling that you are going to faint — some people’s advice is to unlock the front door as you call, so the crew can get in. A paramedic here adds the limit: do not go out onto the steps or into the cold or heat to wait, because falling on the steps or lying out in the weather causes its own injuries. Unlock the door, then sit or lie down inside near it, not upstairs or in a far room. Shut any dogs away, two people say, because a pet can get in the way of the treatment. If you cannot reach the door, one person says, tell the call-taker plainly that they have your permission to break in. One person’s longer-term answer is a key safe with a code, which some areas let you register with the emergency services. And if someone else is with you, give them exact instructions — “unlock the front door”, “call 911 and say this address” — because, as one person notes, a frightened person may not remember the simplest thing.

Who this page is not for

If it is not an emergency — a noise complaint, a theft from last week, a question — this is the wrong number: in the UK, the police non-emergency number is 101; in the United States, your police department’s non-emergency line, which some cities put on 311. The US association’s own line is that if you are not sure whether it is an emergency, call 911 and let the call-taker decide. And if you are outside the United States and the UK, the numbers differ: some people say so, and note that in Germany police are 110 while fire and ambulance are 112, and that in Australia it is 000.