Potential for citizen time savings with 911 access

Much time and discussion is focused on the response time of public safety agencies during an emergency. Little or no time has been spent discussing the time it takes the citizen to access a public safety agency during an emergency. However, preliminary research indicates that after the citizen decides to call for help, substantial time may be spent by the citizen in trying to access the appropriate agency. Many agencies feel that three minutes is the maximum response time allowable in an emergency and consider citizen access time to be negligible. However, SRI International found that the average time spent by citizins for agency access is also three minutes. Many citizens spend substantially more time than the average, particularly when they have difficulty identifying the appropriate agency. The problems encountered by citizens while trying to locate and contact the appropriate agency are described. Areas where a single number, such as 911, is most useful, as well as those areas where it is less useful to the citizen, are discussed.