> [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Well Lisa, what do you do in a case
>> like Brooklyn, New York where by the dispatcher's own admission,
>> "we do not answer this phone after 10 PM"?
> I don't understand the context of your statement. You mean they say
> in NYC they don't answer 911 calls after 10PM? I don't know the story,
> but I suspect perhaps the call was routed to a business office instead
> of an emergency line where such calls wouldn't be answered after hours.
Or, in a case like we have out here ...
There are 300,000 people in the Victor Valley region of San Bernardino County, California, spread out over a significantly large chunk of desert.
There are no municipal police departments in this particular area; the patrol cars say Apple Valley Police, Hesperia Police, Adelanto Police, etc., but the police officers are all actually county sherriff's deputies. There is an outpost in each incorporated city.
You can call the Apple Valley police department number after hours, but your call won't go to Apple Valley; it'll get routed to the sherriff's outpost in Victorville. I am not sure whether the other numbers get routed to Victorville after hours, but they probably do.
(When I say "call the Apple Valley number", I mean the local number, not 911. Again, I'm not sure how things work out here but 911 is probably routed to a regional PSAP.)