So I stop for a MVA deer kill, get some bleeding hearts off the deer and out of the road. Which has no bearing, but anyway….  I probably call 911 twice a year and they drive me nuts.

Why does 911 ask my phone number?  They must have it.

This time they asked my address. WTF does this have to do with anything?  I’m freezing my ass off in the dark, directing heavy traffic and trying to keep idiots out of the road, and they want to know my address??  WTF.

Phone number is to confirm in case they need to call you back. Occasionally (like if you have no service or are in SOS mode for example) the phone may not provide the actual number. As far as the address it is generally the practice to collect the name/phone/address for every caller. Also in cases like accidents, occasionally if we have nobody to send to you immediately and the situation dictates, they may tell you to go home and somebody will follow up with you.

ETA I see now you were not actually involved. In that case I probably would have went on my way after confirming no injuries etc.

I never usually asked for the phone number if I could get it off the ID but it is generally one of those things they're required to confirm by policy etc. Kind of an industry standard for better or worse. Same with the address although if we were really busy and depending on the call we don't ask for it. Also in cases where we can infer that where ever they're calling from is their home address we wouldn't ask.

I've called 911 a few times in my life and yeah, it was a stupid hassle.  

Lesson learned:  just don't.   But if there ever is a real emergency I'm talking right over the call taker spitting out necessary info and then hanging up on them.  

Example: "House on fire, 123 main street!"  Click.

I don't know the per centages, but I don't think that every 911 service is E-911 yet. If they aren't E911 your phone number wont be displayed on their screen
If they're asking for your address it may well be that there are multiple people in their system with your name and they're trying to assign the right guy with the right name to the call ticket. Hard to say without more information.

That's not gonna get anybody there any faster

Nothing is getting anyone there any faster in NY.

Response was always stupid slow. We even called in a stabbing in Metro Buffalo NY and it still took over 15 minutes ... Full time FD and EMS there btw, not volunteer. I could see a cop every 5 minutes in South Buffalo and it would never seem to corelate to a response time any faster when it counted.

Not my point.

I'm not putting up with call takers nonsense.  Giving pertinent info my way, at my pace and that's it.  I will control the phone call, not them.

Deal with it.

That's a really dumb take on the process. They have a job to do and your way of reacting to that isn't helping with the process

I'll be just fine either way

Its industry standard.  There is a baseline of information that is gathered and confirmed for every call regardless of call type.  For most basic calls its not needed but there are many other circumstances where the basic contact information can be very valuable for police fire or EMS.

Callers' current location, contact phone number and/ or confirm the number you're calling from, callers name.   Other information that may be obtained depending on dept SOP, center call volume, and seriousness of the call....  Callers home address, DOB, descriptions, plate #s etc.

At least in my area (northern NY) all 911 calls are recorded, and everything you say, provide etc is subject to NYS discovery should the case involve an arrest.  For most basic calls it really doesn't matter it's just a way to make sure information is as accurate as possible.  

Often times systems also cross reference information with GIS to confirm its correct.  Own property in NYS?  All your info is already part of the system.

In the case of a car vs deer all the information and data collected becomes part of the incident report and accident report...  That information goes to insurance companies so they will pay out.  It's all part of the system from calling 911 to the officer filing your bo-bo report....   and has been like this for decades.

Don't want to get involved don't call 911.  Don't take it out on the dispatcher.

From CPR instructions, to birthing instructions the 911 system is not there to invade your privacy, just to simply get help to you, because you called asking for it.  911 didn't call you, unless you pocket dial 911 tying up resources while we confirm you don't actually need help.

The number of calls processed through 911 system in the state of NY alone is insane.  I think people in general need to be a little more self-sufficient, and deal with shit on their own.  Leave 911 for the real emergencies.  Trust me when I say that a dozen other people already saw the garbage can in the center lane on that highway and called before you even knew it was there.  You're not doing something unique or amazing by calling to tell 911 that the can is there, then being a douche bag because they follow their SOP.

Happy Saturday.  

Why don't they ? They been raping people for years with cell service .. with the e911 fee .. Demand to the useless liberals in power  why all systems are not over to it yet.. they ALL should be

I agree that they should be. I don't know how many aren't. Then you get the people who call the agency directly, instead of the central dispatch number, looking for a police response.
Very little information tends to get collected on those sort of calls. But village or rural residents have over decades gotten used to calling the agency directly when they want a police response. Kind of hard to break that sort of programming.

For YEARS the 911 surcharge money on phone bills that was enacted to go to maintenance and upgrades of the 911 system was collected by the state and funneled into the general fund. Lord knows what was bought with that money. Finally after years of bitching the various county 911 commissioners got the money going directly to the counties now.

The state still mostly keeps the cell surcharge $.  County gets land line $ surcharge.  Sure, there are the state dhses grants but they bind what can be purchased and on state contract.  Even then its a political game and they decide which counties get X amount of $...  They call it an operations grant, or formula grant, but in the end it all comes down to politics.

Oh, and I don't think there are any non E911 centers left in the state.  Some that don't receive cell but they still get all routed landlines.   The counties that don't have their own E911 cell capabilities in their own PSAP have cell calls routed to NYSP comm-sec.  Even then it's not so much a tech capability as it is answering manpower.

Hamilton County is an example of this.  Land line phones are routed to the very small county PSAP, cell calls in the same county are routed to NYSP comm-sec.