Very Disappointed in the 911 System and Trying to be a good citizen

[MMcfall]

I was traveling home from a little weekend trip. I was west bound on I-10 and about 40 miles east of Mobile AL, I come up behind a guy in an older white Oldsmobile with MS plates seriously weaving ALL over the road - right lane, left lane, left shoulder, right shoulder - nearly running everybody trying to get past off the road.



I hop on the cell phone and call 911 to get this guy off the road. 911 transfers me to AL Highway patrol. I give complete description of car, including tag number and mile marker and stay on the line. A long time passes and I keep updating the mile markers as we pass, expecting a Trooper to pull up from behind or pick us up at an intersection or cross over - NOTHING. Phone goes dead - call 911 again.



By now we are we are just a few miles east of the Mobile Bay Bridge. Get the 911 operator, tell her I want to report a drunk driver, give her the location again, get transferred to the AL State Patrol again. Give all the details again. This time I'm told we are now in the Mobile County Sheriff's department jurisdiction and get transferred to them. By the time I get on the line to them we are just getting on the Mobile Bay Bridge. The County says, sorry, you now in the jurisdiction of the City of Mobile and hold the line while they transfer me to them - the call gets dropped.



Call 911 again. Have to go through the entire process AGAIN. While this is going on the DD (drunk driver) is all over the bridge - at one point I was sure he was going to go over the rail - goes down through he Mobile Bay tunnel and actually scrapes the curb once. Get out of the tunnel and I'm now talking to the Mobile City police and giving mile marker updates all the rest of the way through town with this guy weaving across all four west bound lanes the entire way with me telling the dispatcher every mile marker we pass. I giver her my cell number in case we get cut off or to pass to unit to call me an I will give the unit directions - she hangs up.



I call 911 again - transferred to AL State police, Mobile City police, but by this time we are out of the city limits and get transferred back to Mobile County who say they don't have any units available because they are all working accidents and transfer me back the the State Police. They say that we are now so close to the MS/AL state line that they can't help, and try to transfer me to the MS Highway Patrol - call gets dropped.



Call 911 again - this time asked to be transferred to MS State Patrol. Tell them the details again, figuring that they would alert the troopers at the state line weight station and they could stop the DD as we pass, and giving mile markers as we pass them, and the dispatcher says he can't stay on the line and hangs up.



Cross the state line and the weight station is closed!!



MS has signs along the Interstate that if you dial *HP you get straight to the Highway Patrol - I dial it. Guess what "We can not complete your call as dialed". Try it three times with the same result. Call 911 again.



By now there is another guy in a pickup between me and the DD. I can see he is on his cell trying to be a good citizen and get this guy off the road. We come up on a Jackson Co. deputy that has somebody pulled over and the guy in the P-up pulls over behind the cop - presumably to tell him what is going on and I figure that any minute I'll she the lights come screaming up from behind and the DD pulled over. Nope.



The DD drives all the way to the I-110 exit and heads north running a guy off the road an onto the shoulder as he swerves over two lanes to make the exit. I give up - I have spent the last 100 miles trying to get a DD off the road and by the grace of god he didn't kill somebody on the Interstate yesterday. I guess it is true that god smiles on drunks and fools.



I have REALLY lost any faith I had in the 911 system and being a good citizen.

 

[Jumbo Jet]

I understand what you are saying, but I had the exact opposite happen in Nebraska. A truck was spreading his load along I-29. I called 911 and he was pulled over about 15 miles later.



Must be where you are and how busy they are at the time.

 

[Boomer II]

You should have said he was firing a pistol at a bus load of kids.

 

[Sled Puller]

Watch, you will get a ticket for talking and driving.



Go to the press.

 

[TowPro]

i did this once coming home late from work one night. This lady was using both lanes and the shoulder of a 4 lane divided highway just to go straight.



I had to call 911 about 6 times over 20 miles as the call kept getting dropped (cell phone coverage problem). I continued to follow her for 10 miles past my exit. Final as the cop came up behind me (tailgating me) I pulled over, still on the phone I directed the cop through the 911 operator to the exact car which he pulled over. I read in the paper the next day how the police pulled over some judges wife and warned her for a traffic violation! (exact location and time they pulled over the drunk driver)



The other thing I hate (at least we have this problem in PA) is the 911 operator will ask "what township are you in"? Most times unless I am near home I have no idea what township I am in! Why can't they take the intersection I give them and look it up on a map?

 

[The patriot]

I've had a few bad encounters with 911.

Nothing to that extent though... .

 

[Sojourner]

From '84 to '93 I did ride-alongs with a number of cop friends on pretty much a weekly basis - too many hours to count. One night in '93 while we were cruising around in his patrol car this one cop buddy of mine, a well-seasoned cop and the salt of the earth with whom I had become the best of friends, out of the blue said to me, "In the future you need to avoid all contact with the police. " Taken aback I asked him to explain it to me, "John, what in the world are you talking about?!?!?" He then proceeded to explain it to me. Even then the way things were headed he could see it for himself due to personal, first hand experience. The police are not there to help you, only use you and abuse you (for the most part - there are notable exceptions, particularly involving 'old school' cops, actual 'peace officers', which are becoming fewer and fewer due to 'training'). There is an 'us and them' mentality amongst the police, and along with the way the corporate state has evolved you can forget about them looking out for your interests first. This particular cop buddy took early retirement in '94. (There's more to tell, but I'm not going to go into it here. )



I have pretty much tried to stick to his advice and I avoid calling 911 unless absolutely necessary (auto accident, drunk driver as mentioned, etc. ), I think out all my other options first and act accordingly.

 

[Sled Puller]

I would say its safe to say, the majority of the police have "disenfranchised" the public a long time ago.

 

[Shovelhead]

9-1-1 = Government Sponsored Dial-A-Prayer.

 

[RandyHamilton]

I prefer to rely on 1911 rather than 911 when it comes to my safety and the safety of my family. .

 

[TRAMPLINEMAN]

I think Flavor Flav from Public Enemy said it best when he sang, "911's a joke in your town", at a Policemans Ball.

 

[Jaysyl]

I prefer to rely on 1911 rather than 911 when it comes to my safety and the safety of my family. .

These are the best words of advice I have seen in a long time. A 1911 will solve most safety problems.

 

[JR2]

Maybe I am just lucky, the last two times I have called somone in the cops have shown up right away. The first one was a domestic violence thing, the driver of a pickup punched his female passenger in the face while I was watching. I got the pleasure of watching the cops pull him over 20 miles down the road. The second was a drunk driver that I watched get pulled over (by a federal park ranger).

 

[TowPro]

At a place I used to work we had to dial 91 to get a "long distance" outside line. One night at home I was trying to call somewhere and dialed 91-1-XXX-XXX-XXXX, when I realized I dialed the 91 first I hung up and dialed the number again. I was on hold for around 15 minutes then there was this banging on the door. It was the State Police. They have to respond to every 911 hangup and since the 911 operator kept getting a busy signal when they called me back the police were on the way. (this was around midnight) and the Police barics is around 1/2 hour away. Once I opened the door, they sort of invited themself inside (with hands on guns) to look around. They also made sure they checked with my wife to make sure it was not a domestic violence call. I guess I approve of there response because if someone was inside they would have forced there way into the situation, but once I opened that door they were coming in.