?11

Sometimes you hear or smell something unusual but you'd hate to bother the 911 emergency-response people if it's actually nothing. As a result, you decide not to do anything.

Sadly, some of these questionable incidents do turn out to be dangerous. For example, that argument you hear next door could be domestic violence, or that smoke you smell might be something other than the person next to you burning food.

What's needed is a service that listens to your description, and groups it with other people's descriptions from the same location in order to decide whether it's an emergency; if they think it is, then they route it to 911-emergency for you. They make the decision for you based on established rules.

For example, if the ?11 people get complaints from multiple people in different apartments in the same building about smoke, then they call the fire department. But if it's just one person they won't. Again, if you really want the FD to come, call 911 yourself. If you're not sure, call ?11.

In the case of the domestic argument, the ?11 service can decide if this is the first time or if lots of people have reported this in the same location. They can count the number of reports of concern and send someone only after it reaches a certain threshhold. You feel no guilt for calling and reporting it. Whereas with 911, they have to respond immediately even if the caller is wrong, and you may feel guilty reporting it if it was a mistake.

Thank you.