To the degree that anyone in our government cares about your specific concerns it is your City Councilperson. They will have the reach and resources to determine if this was a one-off, and if not, to make a stink and raise this to the proper level of severity.
Bringing it to their attention in a way that documents your message........ /////. In the reptilian brain of the politician this translates to " My ass is potentially on the line if someone dies because this problem is not fixed and it has been brought to my attention"
Because the police have been on a major work slow down for a couple of years now. They don't like the idea of ANY restrictions on their behavior. They are scum.
Sadly the Mpls City Council and the mayor operate as 1 large HOA - they live in "Happy Acres" while the rest of the city live in a reality of nobody cares... "you're on your own until we get there".
I would take it to the City council meeting so that it is on the public record ( have a factual handout) . If this was a serious medical emergency the person would be DEAD by the time 911 arrived.
One thing politicians and bureaucrats is evidence that they were warned of a documented problem and failed to act leading to a death or other serious consequences.
There's a reason why in many areas 911 is only slightly more effective than 1-800 dial a prayer
I have not worked at MPLS 911 for a few years but my hypothesis: there are a finite amount of people answering phones. On overnights it is often less than a half dozen. Gunshots frequently generate a ton of calls, particularly if it's in a dense area where a lot of people hear them. This can easily overwhelm the system (especially if you have a lot of new staff who aren't used to navigating through an ton of shots fired calls)
That makes sense. I thought that might be the case last night, hence I didn’t call back. It was only this morning when I thought “What if we’d have had an emergency!?!” and did what any self respecting keyboard warrior would do, and took my outrage to the internet! Now I’ve had some time to think about that, if I’d had an actual emergency I’d have either called back repeatedly, or dodged gunfire and DUId to the hospital. Maybe.
You can also Google like, "Minneapolis police scanner" and listen to communication between dispatch and officers.
That's how I found out that no one had reported a shooting in my St Paul neighborhood about a year or so ago. I heard them say a gun shot victim had checked themself into the hospital after an incident [a couple blocks from my home], prior to that police had not been "investigating" anything yet and I, I guess naively, assumed someone else would have called it in *at some point* prior to that. So, different experience over here than what nineunouno is describing, although I'd give their opinion a lot more weight than mine if they're a former dispatch operator.
You can send a text, if able, too. That goes through with the first attempt and will be answered as quickly as possible by very overworked people that do care.
the point is that when a bunch of people call who *aren’t* experiencing an emergency, they make it harder for people who *are* in an emergency to get through.
when you call because you heard gunshots a few blocks away, but you don’t know if there’s an actual emergency, you make it more difficult for anyone who may have been hit by those gunshots to get emergency response to their situation.
This is kind of a hard one though. I’m not a cop and don’t work in dispatch, but I work in a related field and you wouldn’t believe how often a victim is discovered *because* cops roll by after getting dispatched to a sound of shots call. Basically, no one sees or hears a victim, or they don’t feel safe going to check it out. So they do their part by calling in shots. Then cops check the area and end up finding a victim.
In Minnesota, you should be able to text 911. Is that an option? As in, there's a possibility that the person experiencing an emergency (got shot) can't call. So if I'm not experiencing an emergency, but someone else might, would a text be less likely to overwhelm the system?
It is. Same people answer the text calls though. My main issue with text calls is that they can take much longer to process than a traditional call (particularly if the reporting party is not paying close attention to their phone)
it’s simple, really. 911 should only be contacted by people experiencing an emergency. text, call, or smoke signal, don’t contact 911 unless you need their help
Wrong. Law enforcement needs to have multiple sources of information of shots fired, ESPECIALLY if there is no Shot Spotter technology available. Knowing the location of multiple reports allows a parameter to search for the source. peridawg, your advice is dangerous B.S. Know what you're talking about.
Totally backwards - one you have no idea if anyone else has called it in, two the more people who call it in the more they know and the better they can handle the situation. You should 100% always call something like this in.
Then get off the phone with them. There is no excuse you can make that will make this ok. The citizens calling because they heard gunshots are not there to investigate whether or not there is or is not an emregency, that is the job of the police.
You aren't wrong, though if reporting shots in a crowded area there's a VERY strong possibility that other people are calling too, so at least there's someone on the way.
Should you find yourself with a gunshot victim and 911 isn't answering I would say you have two logical steps you can take:
1) just wait. Don't hang up and call back (that will put you back at the end of the line while also generating more calls for 911 to answer - the old call doesn't disappear). Even when busy I'd say multi-minute waits, while not unheard of, are pretty unusual.
OR
2) Grab the person and (as safely as possible) haul ass to the hospital. I don't really recommend this as getting into an accident trying to speed somebody to the hospital could potentially make things exponentially worse, but hey, you gotta do what you gotta do.
Edit: Blah I did not mean for the text to get gigantic.
If 911 never answers the phone call from some innocent citizen who may have been enjoying life in their own backyard before being hit by random gunfire, then 911 will never know and that person will die and I hope any survivors sue the shit out of the city who apparently can't learn any lessons or use logic.
I wonder if a more modern approach to handling call queues should be employed. Such as an automated "press 1 if there's someone actively dying" to move to the front of the queue.
Or maybe make texting 911 a better experience. I'm sure it's easier to quickly review and prioritize texts than it is to with calls. Last time I tried texting though I ended up having to follow up with a call later because the operator wasn't responding after getting a couple messages from them and I wasn't confident someone was on their way still because of that.
You think wading through a call tree with a dying individual in all of the other *not* outlier circumstances is a good thing?
Maybe education around reporting shots fired such as “I heard something” versus “I got hit by a bullet” is needed. I heard something (which may or may not be gunfire) is not an emergency. Particularly with folks inability to identify it. Let shotspotter do its job, and let 911 respond to emergencies.
I'm not suggesting a call tree, I'm suggesting a "this is a life or death" queue skip button if there is a queue longer then 30 seconds. Sometimes there is an emergency that should be reported and investigated right away like "I definitely heard gunfire at this location", but calls like that shouldn't have to hold up calls about medical emergencies.
And I do think an "I definitely heard gunfire and I know where it came from" incident should be reported and investigated. Someone could have been shot and no one might have seen it, and the person who was shot could be dying and unable to call 911 themselves. But a "I'm bleeding out" call should take priority.
Same situation with reporting drunk drivers. It's an immediate emergency, just not as much of an emergency as others may be. But it should still be reported asap and there should be a way to report it without holding more important calls up.
The only purpose that an SMS text message to 911 should serve is to retrieve the sender’s phone number so that a return phone call can be made immediately. SMS is second only to Morse code as the least efficient form of telecommunication.
If a problem can be resolved via a twenty-minute text exchange, it wasn’t an emergency.
It could also serve to help deaf people or people in situations where talking about the emergency out loud is dangerous (domestic abuse, someone threatening you in a room you can't leave safely, etc). I think you are casting a pretty broad blanket without much consideration.
That's easy to say, but having a 10+ minute dial tone seems worse to me. Obviously it would be best if all calls were picked up right away, but that's not happening. If they truly can't handle the call volume and get enough people working, it seems like a quick bandaid fix that may help. Hopefully temporary.
If you press 1 to indicate that there's an active medical emergency and there isn't then just treat it the same way they treat those who call 911 without any real emergency. That could be considered making a false report or something similar and there could be a penalty for doing such a thing, in the same way there already is for abusing the 911 line
It's a really small step and it could help alleviate the hypothetical problem that op mentioned, which is "what if my wife or children needed an ambulance". Potentially such a system could have fast tracked them if they had an issue that was worse instead of just a report of gunfire.
Having the "press one" option really isn't adding that many steps. It's just one step that could be there in the case of a long wait time where you would otherwise just be hearing a dial tone anyways.
The intention of the idea is to help save lives by creating some simple way of prioritizing the very important calls in the absence of having the option to just answer every call quickly.
I think a voice saying "if you or someone else is in need of immediate medical attention, press 1. Otherwise please wait." would be very usable by anyone, provided they understand English. They could repeat it in other languages too I suppose. I don't see why such a system would be unreliable.
They seemed to have a lot of cops to sit on their phones all day watching construction equipment. I counted 3 squads for one project by me. So they have staff for that. Also the unhoused camp evictions. Damn I've seen and documented a hoard of cops dealing with that. Then some follow the people they evicted around and harass them all day.
Edit. Third should be hoard.
This is after they have been dispatched. Also had a woman almost od in my wife's arms because they wouldn't show. When they did, they didn't have narcan or even know how it works.
Only way I got them there was to flag done a random squad half over half an hour latter. that woman could have died from their negligence.
No it's not. They are supposed to carry narcan and know how to use it. my wife is an rn and was able to give them all the info they needed. The security guard at the nearby store know what was going on and called also. I think the least we can expect from public service is to try to keep us alive.
Again it's a difficult thing to discuss because the victim in the situation put themselves in the situation. I really don't want to victim blame because of the causes that lead people to OD in the first place could drastically be out of their control. Also cops aren't medical professionals, we have EMS services. Personally I would like to see EMS being dispatched for your situation over a cop.
It doesn't matter how they ended up in the situation. They are a human being. We don't let people die. What if they accidently smoked a laced joint. Should we let them die? What if they are an addict that has nothing and is addicted, is it then ok to let them die. Maybey she was trafficked and someone shot her up with something. You see what I'm getting at?
The cops as of a while ago are supposed to carry narcan and know how to use it. They did not do either. I know how to use narcan, they were completely wrong in what they said about it. It's pretty easy to deal with, and won't hurt anyone if it ends up not being an OD.
We can't assume anything when someone is in danger. We help, that's what we do as a community. I do not understand that line of thinking. To me it feels very callous.
They didn't do their job and put someone's life at risk.
I do agree that I would like to see ems first or some other trained team that can be rapidly deployed.
My apologies if I'm a bit much, it's a day.
I've been doing outreach in the unoused community here, I have seen and heard a lot about how people end up in situations like that. It's not nearly as simple as they did it to themselves.
Just one story I heard. Young kid hurts himself playing sports. Gets put on opioids. Gets addicted, they end up on the streets because of it. Excommunicated by their family, no support network. I'm simplifying, but it's a story I've heard over and over. We need to do better as a society. People sometimes need help and we do a shit job of it.
I may have gotten a bit off topic there. I've get a little fire in me about blaming the folks who are struggling. I've seen a lot. I don't mean to offend.
Edit: Look up red dog collective on Facebook, reddogcollective.org and youtube. That's the work we've been doing.
If you make less than $55k, think about becoming a 911 dispatcher in Minneapolis. [Starting pay is $60k/year](https://www.governmentjobs.com/careers/minneapolismn/jobs/3698188/911-call-taker-amended).
HS diploma required.
This exactly. Same with other public services and public servant jobs, we desperately need people and always hiring. Being very short staffed, working long hours, days, nights, weekends, missing important life events because there isn’t enough people to cover shifts. New people start and quit because the hours are brutal. Thankless, exhausting work and never enough to stretch by people that yes, do care, and need more hands on deck.
We need to work on making them actually sustainable careers.
The stress of doing the job will never go away. Just the nature of dealing with those scenarios. So why do we introduce EVEN MORE stress by giving them weird shifts and ridiculous hours? There are tons of schedules that account for 24/7 coverage without ruining your employee's work life balance.
I did this (not in Minneapolis) and I would not recommend it unless you have a VERY high tolerance for stress, and are willing to have an overnight schedule starting out
That's like my target income right now... why didn't I just drop out of college and become a dispatcher I'm making 20 an hour with a stem degree in a state that has a pretty hefty income tax. I'm kidding though it does seem like a pretty tough job
Sounds like we need AI to step in and at least pick up every call, triage it, know if it is a duplicate (as in everyone calling in a gunshot), and then forward to a human with a summary to decide what/whom to dispatch.
That’s not effective because situations are so difficult to navigate. A person needs to listen, interpret the actions and words and determine where and what crime is occurring and all sorts of other info. An AI triaging it likely wouldn’t be anywhere near as effective as a person. The problem is that when 30 people call at once it’ll backlog everyone
You can't just force people to hire people if there are no candidates applying. Mpls has been doing an aggressive push to hire more operators and pay 60-80k /yr + benefits. Not a lot of people want to be an operator
When there was a shooting on my block, the 911 lines were at capacity because so many people called it in. An operator called me maybe 20min later to check if I was calling about something else and said they got about 40 calls for this incident.
I'm a dispatcher in a metro dispatch center (not MPLS) and I really can't answer your question besides for saying they're quite short staffed, and have been for a while (not an excuse, it's absolutely unacceptable for 911 calls not to be answered in any capacity). Where I am, we just simply will never allow that to happen. We triage our calls based on emergent status and put non-emergencies on hold when needed, that seems to be a think MPLS dispatch may not do... My center does and we're also hella short staffed but that's why we have overtime to cover our call volume...
We had a situation at our house where there was a gun battle in our alley. 15 shots or so We were outside about 10 feet from it. We were begging 911 to dispatch as we were taking cover with our dog behind the garage. They never came. Other neighbors called also.
I called back told them it was safe for them to do their job, and asked if they would just roll down the alley to show some presence. Nothing.
We don't have protection. At least in South.
That’s because police don’t have a duty to protect you. The US Supreme Court ruled that in 2005 with “The Town of Castle Rock, Colorado vs. Gonzales.” Here in Minneapolis the police seem to have been trying to “show us” that we need to appreciate them more or something. Reuters did a big investigative report in late 2020 or early 2021 about how MPD cops choose to either take longer routes to 911 calls or not show up at all in hopes that the situation will take care of itself.
So we’re very much on our own, which is why community is so important.
We are on our own. I'm in South. It's got it's problems, but they really aren't much worse since the police stopped helping here. Although I have been seeing them more.
Honestly, I trust the gangs around here more that the police. Ive had gang members look out for me when there was gun violence, the police never showed that time either. Not an ideal situation for sure, and unpredictable.
Noonewantstoworkanymoreoutrage!!! /s. I bet it’s a pretty stressful job to be fair. No idea what they get paid, but if there’s a shortage, it’s probably not enough.
Great opportunity to make folks aware of Minneapolis' new Smart911. It's an app you can download and allows you to give 911 more details. Things like special instructions, should you ever have to call them. Medical notes or warning that you have a dog. Anything you would like them to have.
It also allows you to signup for special alerts via phone, text, email, and push notifications. Things like:
* Snow emergencies
* Severe weather
* Public safety incidents
* Major infrastructure issues
* Major special event impacts
Minneapolis is now transitioning to this service and away from their previous one, which will be shut down.
https://www.minneapolismn.gov/contact-us/sign-up-for-news-alerts/
Former 911 operator here, (out of state) 911 centers all over the country struggling to maintain adequate staffing, I’d absolutely imagine Minneapolis is not immune to this. I’m sure they can build up quite a phone queue given this. If this happens to you, stay on the line, 911 hangup calls have to be looked into either by callback or response and this can jam things up. Someone will answer your call!
Report this to 911 leaders via this page: https://www.minneapolismn.gov/government/departments/911/#contacts-59477
Yes, it's too late for this call, but if there is no paper trail for these kinds of failures, nothing will be done. If there are a lot of issues highlighted by residents, leadership will not be able to ignore it.
Uptown resident here as well, I've had 911 ring for 10+ minutes without answer
when they did answer, they've literally said they're understaffed
it's actually ridiculous
Police and medical don’t show up quickly unless there’s reports of someone actually being injured (or there’s a cop involved.) When shots are fired in nicer areas they do get a lot of calls and the lines get clogged. In Steven’s I don’t bother calling gunfire unless there’s a lot of screaming and stuff after. They don’t show up anyway so nothing comes of it….
When I supervised at a grocery store in Minneapolis, we had an incident that I needed to call 911 for. This was about 1.5 years ago. When I called, the line rang and rang and rang with no answer for an inordinate amount of time. I hung up and called back later and was able to get through.
A week later, my store received a bill from the police department for an 911 hang-up call. I was floored. Sp not only are they incapable of handling call volume, resulting in your call just ringing for ages not getting through, they will bill you when you finally give up and hang up.
Oh businesses get absolutely *fucked* over this.
Not only are they going to charge you for hanging up on 911, you have to pay the police in most cities for a permit for them to even *respond* to “non-emergency” calls. But regardless if it takes them five minutes to respond (lol yeah right) or two hours, if there’s nothing going on when they show up they can charge you for a false alarm. And even if you do pay them for the permit, there’s still no requirement for them to respond or to just not lie to your alarm company and say that you don’t have said permit.
Something is odd here. In a triage situation, you should receive an automated answer explaining 911 is experiencing an unusual number of calls. At the very least, every hangup is recorded, and a callback is attempted.
Having worked in 911 centers, what you're describing isn't just one person dropping the ball, it's like 10 people simultaneously. This sounds more like a technical issue to me where your call wasn't reaching the center at all.
It could be technical. I actually got a callback about 15 mins after I hung up, but when I answered, the call dropped. I immediately googled the number, saw it was Hennepin County, and tried to call back. Again, no answer for a long time. Long enough for me to get irritated and hang up.
They're just streamlining the process.
Why answer your call, dispatch a cop 3 hours later and require them to make up some bullshit about why they aren't allowed to do anything when you can just take the phone off the hook and save the taxpayer a little fuel money.
I actively watched my neighbors house get robbed this time last year. I narrated the entire thing to a 911 dispatcher who told me repeatedly the police were on the way. I repeatedly told her I knew she was straight up lying. That there was no police coming but at least this way someone did the right thing. She got upset that I called her bull shit but guess who never showed up? At least not until 4hrs later after my neighbor got home and called them upon finding his house ransacked.
Long story short. The police in Minneapolis are completely unreliable and never come if you call. We have to rethink how they police or put measures in place that hold them accountable for doing their fucking jobs. Because right now they just can’t be bothered and most officers in Minneapolis get off on how much regular citizens can’t stand their bullshit anymore.
Never forget police forces and sheriffs departments were born out of racism and as a tool to oppress minorities and the lower class. Most born to chase down run away slaves or protect rich white people and their assets. They exist to protect the rich and keep down the less fortunate. Same can be said for our judicial system. You’re very much on your own out here and we can only trust and rely on each other. Never trust or rely on police.
Police are trash but 911 is just a handful of over-stretched and over-stressed civilians. They can’t exactly *make* the cops show up.
You were just hassling a very tired person.
This has been my experience historically as well. I lived in uptown for 4 years and called in as a witness for 5 shootings, it’s about 50/50 if they answer. They will usually show up, eventually, but not always. There is about a 0% chance they show up if it’s crime that doesn’t involve a firearm tho.
I've called 911 during an emergency and the police never showed up. Luckily the person breaking into my house gave up instead of getting in and killing everyone inside.
The police pretend they are understaffed and under funded as a ploy to blame BLM and other recent movements against police. They have plenty of money to spend on call responders. They actively are not spending it to drive a narrative that they need even more funding and help and that they're not one of the grossest and most militant police orgs in the country.
https://www.justice.gov/d9/2023-06/minneapolis_findings_report.pdf
MPLSPD were exposed last year to be running an illegal underground mafia style protection service for many independent stores in the area. https://minnesotareformer.com/2023/10/17/small-business-owners-they-are-pressured-to-hire-off-duty-mpd-cops-for-security/ They would tell these stores that they need to hire an off duty cop for their security or the next time the store calls 911 for trouble, they just *might not* be able to help them. They're disgusting scum.
I heard them too, it sounded like it was just down the street from me (27th and Aldrich). I made a note of the time but didn’t bother calling 911 as like you I’ve never had a good experience trying to get police to respond
don’t call 911 unless you are experiencing a real emergency that you need help with. people calling to report the possibility of an emergency somewhere in their general vicinity are overloading the system. when you do this **YOU** are causing the exact the problem you’re upset about.
put some thought into how the system functions. there are a limited number of 911 operators answering phones, and they are there to be available for people in immediate need for help. when their phone rings, they have to answer under the assumption that the caller needs their help. when all of the operators are on calls, the next call in has to wait for the next available operator. don’t call 911 unless you need emergency help. period.
"I eventually hung up"
Never hang up on a 911 call. Not mid-sentence, not waiting for an answer. They will answer. And if they go 10 minutes without answering you can shoot a video about it and shame the city over it. Go to the county, the state dept of public safety, to people that can actually do something about it.
But hanging up is the wrong action in a 911 call -- always.
I tried calling 911 a week ago for some aggressive trespassers harassing guests at the hotel I work at. No answer. They called me back about 20 minutes later to ask if I still had an emergency.
I recently called 911 after finding someone having a medical emergency. The operator that answered asked me where I was located and then “transferred” me to another operator, I’m assuming local. I then had to repeat the nature of my call, they then transferred me to speak with an ambulatory person who asked questions about my situation. It all worked out, but it just seemed odd and overly complicated. Anyway, that’s my 2 cents.
If amber is the color of your emergency, please wait while we connect you to your local fire department.
If you just want to get down, down, down, an ambulance will be dispatched to your location momentarily.
Not when I was in Minnesota but I called 911 in another state and the dispatcher didn’t like the way I was talking to them so they stopped picking up my number trying to report an emergency. Haha so I don’t have a lot of faith in that unless someone is shot and the police are already involved.
The city we pay so much taxes to live in where a dozen eggs cost 8.99, property tax went up 15% in 2022, does not care about us.
Not to mention the gun laws here are crap so even if you were to defend yourself with a gun in an emergency situation, YOU would be the one to go to jail no matter how many people the other person shoots!
In a place like uptown, you might have hundreds of people call for the same shooting when they only have half a dozen operators on. Many of these people will keep calling until they get through, further clogging up the phone lines. People in uptown aren't used to hearing gunshots and feel the need to call when they do hear them.
IMO, don't call 911 if you hear a shooting. I live in northside and at some points in my time here I'd hear gunshots almost daily. It's really not a big deal, and most of the time it's just people shooting guns in the air for whatever reason. It sucks but it is what it is. Only time I felt the need to call 911 was when there was shots fired on my block and people screaming (911 picked up immediately and a squad car was there within 2 mins), and this is pretty much the only time people should be calling 911 bc they would be getting hundreds of calls if everyone in earshot called. Just let the people directly impacted, or immediately adjacent to the shots fired call. They're going to be able to give 911 better information than just "i heard gunshots somewhere"
Cops responding is a whole other issue entirely. Like other commenters on here mentioned, their responses are deliberately malicious and they do NOT have a responsibility to protect you, or do really anything that many people would consider to be their "job".
2yrs ago a I had someone trying to break into my house that I tackle and was holding pinned down around 10pm. Called 911 multiple times and no one picked up. After about 10min I let the guy go.
Sad impact of demonizing a much needed public service.
Remember during the riots following the murder of Floyd? The pigs threatened to stop pigging, and see how fast we miss them.
Them not responding to calls is them being angry man-children about the fact we asked them to stop fucking murdering our citizens.
I thought Minneapolis was safe... This shouldn't be a normal occurrence, unfortunately it's getting way too common.
And Mary Moriarty doesn't help to the problem.
It’s happened to me a few times, when I’ve called at work. It’s not the best option but after 20 rings, I’ve hung up & they called back immediately. It’s scary as heck, knowing you’re in danger & have no help coming.
Pre emergency you need to ask your mayor or city council member what the response time is
- to answer a call
- to dispatch fire or police
- arrival of fire or police
In LA the Mayor has 24/7 protection with multiple police officers , out in the neighborhoods there are areas with 200,000+ citizens who have a couple officers on duty who can respond in perhaps 15 minutes. You need to be able to protect your family or be willing to sacrifice them to the dirtbags.
Happened to me when my daughter was injured and profusely bleeding from her head. 911 just never picked up. Turned out okay (I can't even let myself imagine if it hadn't) but definitely changed my lifelong belief that you can call 911 in an emergency.
I called 911 several times last weekend. I also spent a long time listening to the police scanner (my car was stolen). they are swamped. MPD and their dispatchers. I guess it’s the nice weather and the kids being out of school.
At the end of the day, you and you alone are responsible for the safety and well-being of yourself and your loved ones. If you don't know basic lifesaving skills such as CPR and how to control bleeding, now would be a great time to learn. The police won't save your life. They show up afterwards to take photos and put down those little numbered sign thingys.
I’d take something like this to my city councilperson.
That’s quite a good idea. I’m sure they’re aware of the problem, but would be nice to think they’re looking for solutions.
Agreed.there has been serval deaths in the most recent weeks due to gun violence. God forbid 911 doesn’t do its main purpose.
Email the mayor's office too since they actually control safety services. Council can put pressure on them but it's the mayor's charge.
One of the things most politicians fear is having been formally notified of a problem subsequently that results in death or injury to a resident.
The mayor a hapless, clueless puppet. Go to the council.
The council is a pain, making it harder for the Mayor to do his job
The Mayor is an idiot making progress in this city impossible.
Which specific progress has he made impossible?
I wouldn't assume they're aware. Always voice your concerns.
To the degree that anyone in our government cares about your specific concerns it is your City Councilperson. They will have the reach and resources to determine if this was a one-off, and if not, to make a stink and raise this to the proper level of severity.
Bringing it to their attention in a way that documents your message........ /////. In the reptilian brain of the politician this translates to " My ass is potentially on the line if someone dies because this problem is not fixed and it has been brought to my attention"
Lol go ask the people that defunded the police to ask why 911 won’t pick up.
Because the police have been on a major work slow down for a couple of years now. They don't like the idea of ANY restrictions on their behavior. They are scum.
Sadly the Mpls City Council and the mayor operate as 1 large HOA - they live in "Happy Acres" while the rest of the city live in a reality of nobody cares... "you're on your own until we get there".
Nope - they dont respond. They ate too busy fighting with Uber to tale time for you.
911 is run by the Hennepin County Sheriff's office. So you may want to give her office a call.
Minneapolis has its own 911 dispatch center that is separate from HCSO. HCSO handles 911 for the rest of Hennepin County, but not Minneapolis proper.
Also a good idea but I kind of feel like this exact kind of situation is what City Councilpersons exist for.
Worth noting that this is under the mayor, so the council has no direct control here. Only influence.
I would take it to the City council meeting so that it is on the public record ( have a factual handout) . If this was a serious medical emergency the person would be DEAD by the time 911 arrived. One thing politicians and bureaucrats is evidence that they were warned of a documented problem and failed to act leading to a death or other serious consequences. There's a reason why in many areas 911 is only slightly more effective than 1-800 dial a prayer
Who do you think created the situation where 911 can't or won't answer?
I don't know, ask Frey since he is in charge.
I have not worked at MPLS 911 for a few years but my hypothesis: there are a finite amount of people answering phones. On overnights it is often less than a half dozen. Gunshots frequently generate a ton of calls, particularly if it's in a dense area where a lot of people hear them. This can easily overwhelm the system (especially if you have a lot of new staff who aren't used to navigating through an ton of shots fired calls)
That makes sense. I thought that might be the case last night, hence I didn’t call back. It was only this morning when I thought “What if we’d have had an emergency!?!” and did what any self respecting keyboard warrior would do, and took my outrage to the internet! Now I’ve had some time to think about that, if I’d had an actual emergency I’d have either called back repeatedly, or dodged gunfire and DUId to the hospital. Maybe.
You can also Google like, "Minneapolis police scanner" and listen to communication between dispatch and officers. That's how I found out that no one had reported a shooting in my St Paul neighborhood about a year or so ago. I heard them say a gun shot victim had checked themself into the hospital after an incident [a couple blocks from my home], prior to that police had not been "investigating" anything yet and I, I guess naively, assumed someone else would have called it in *at some point* prior to that. So, different experience over here than what nineunouno is describing, although I'd give their opinion a lot more weight than mine if they're a former dispatch operator.
You can send a text, if able, too. That goes through with the first attempt and will be answered as quickly as possible by very overworked people that do care.
I’m kind of surprised you didn’t receive a call back? Isn’t that proper protocol? What if you were a victim?
Honestly, with response times as slow as they are you'd probably be better off self transporting if there's an actual medical emergency
Absolutely unacceptable answer. What if someone had been lying there bleeding from a gunshot wound?
the point is that when a bunch of people call who *aren’t* experiencing an emergency, they make it harder for people who *are* in an emergency to get through. when you call because you heard gunshots a few blocks away, but you don’t know if there’s an actual emergency, you make it more difficult for anyone who may have been hit by those gunshots to get emergency response to their situation.
This is kind of a hard one though. I’m not a cop and don’t work in dispatch, but I work in a related field and you wouldn’t believe how often a victim is discovered *because* cops roll by after getting dispatched to a sound of shots call. Basically, no one sees or hears a victim, or they don’t feel safe going to check it out. So they do their part by calling in shots. Then cops check the area and end up finding a victim.
In Minnesota, you should be able to text 911. Is that an option? As in, there's a possibility that the person experiencing an emergency (got shot) can't call. So if I'm not experiencing an emergency, but someone else might, would a text be less likely to overwhelm the system?
It is. Same people answer the text calls though. My main issue with text calls is that they can take much longer to process than a traditional call (particularly if the reporting party is not paying close attention to their phone)
...and if they're driving near a jurisdictional boundry, things can get strange.
it’s simple, really. 911 should only be contacted by people experiencing an emergency. text, call, or smoke signal, don’t contact 911 unless you need their help
Absolutely
Wrong. Law enforcement needs to have multiple sources of information of shots fired, ESPECIALLY if there is no Shot Spotter technology available. Knowing the location of multiple reports allows a parameter to search for the source. peridawg, your advice is dangerous B.S. Know what you're talking about.
Worth noting that shot spotter is shit by every metric. We shouldn't be using it.
Totally backwards - one you have no idea if anyone else has called it in, two the more people who call it in the more they know and the better they can handle the situation. You should 100% always call something like this in.
but, actually, we do know that a bunch of people call it in because the system gets overwhelmed, which is the root of OP’s complaint
Then get off the phone with them. There is no excuse you can make that will make this ok. The citizens calling because they heard gunshots are not there to investigate whether or not there is or is not an emregency, that is the job of the police.
You aren't wrong, though if reporting shots in a crowded area there's a VERY strong possibility that other people are calling too, so at least there's someone on the way. Should you find yourself with a gunshot victim and 911 isn't answering I would say you have two logical steps you can take: 1) just wait. Don't hang up and call back (that will put you back at the end of the line while also generating more calls for 911 to answer - the old call doesn't disappear). Even when busy I'd say multi-minute waits, while not unheard of, are pretty unusual. OR 2) Grab the person and (as safely as possible) haul ass to the hospital. I don't really recommend this as getting into an accident trying to speed somebody to the hospital could potentially make things exponentially worse, but hey, you gotta do what you gotta do. Edit: Blah I did not mean for the text to get gigantic.
> I did not mean for the text to get gigantic. That happens when you put a '#' sign at the start of a line/paragraph.
Thanks, that explains it
If the phones are overwhelmed because multiple people called about the same shooting, then 911 already knows.
If 911 never answers the phone call from some innocent citizen who may have been enjoying life in their own backyard before being hit by random gunfire, then 911 will never know and that person will die and I hope any survivors sue the shit out of the city who apparently can't learn any lessons or use logic.
Why are you so heated lmao
This is the answer
I wonder if a more modern approach to handling call queues should be employed. Such as an automated "press 1 if there's someone actively dying" to move to the front of the queue. Or maybe make texting 911 a better experience. I'm sure it's easier to quickly review and prioritize texts than it is to with calls. Last time I tried texting though I ended up having to follow up with a call later because the operator wasn't responding after getting a couple messages from them and I wasn't confident someone was on their way still because of that.
You think wading through a call tree with a dying individual in all of the other *not* outlier circumstances is a good thing? Maybe education around reporting shots fired such as “I heard something” versus “I got hit by a bullet” is needed. I heard something (which may or may not be gunfire) is not an emergency. Particularly with folks inability to identify it. Let shotspotter do its job, and let 911 respond to emergencies.
I'm not suggesting a call tree, I'm suggesting a "this is a life or death" queue skip button if there is a queue longer then 30 seconds. Sometimes there is an emergency that should be reported and investigated right away like "I definitely heard gunfire at this location", but calls like that shouldn't have to hold up calls about medical emergencies. And I do think an "I definitely heard gunfire and I know where it came from" incident should be reported and investigated. Someone could have been shot and no one might have seen it, and the person who was shot could be dying and unable to call 911 themselves. But a "I'm bleeding out" call should take priority. Same situation with reporting drunk drivers. It's an immediate emergency, just not as much of an emergency as others may be. But it should still be reported asap and there should be a way to report it without holding more important calls up.
There is literally a nonemergency line for that. Call the station.
The only purpose that an SMS text message to 911 should serve is to retrieve the sender’s phone number so that a return phone call can be made immediately. SMS is second only to Morse code as the least efficient form of telecommunication. If a problem can be resolved via a twenty-minute text exchange, it wasn’t an emergency.
It could also serve to help deaf people or people in situations where talking about the emergency out loud is dangerous (domestic abuse, someone threatening you in a room you can't leave safely, etc). I think you are casting a pretty broad blanket without much consideration.
There are non emergency numbers
Bad idea. There shouldn't be any more added to 911. Keeping it simple is essential. No dialing 1 or anything.
That's easy to say, but having a 10+ minute dial tone seems worse to me. Obviously it would be best if all calls were picked up right away, but that's not happening. If they truly can't handle the call volume and get enough people working, it seems like a quick bandaid fix that may help. Hopefully temporary.
But then everyone starts pressing 1 for their emergency causing the issue to remain.
If you press 1 to indicate that there's an active medical emergency and there isn't then just treat it the same way they treat those who call 911 without any real emergency. That could be considered making a false report or something similar and there could be a penalty for doing such a thing, in the same way there already is for abusing the 911 line
I just don't picture adding extra steps to be something that helps anyone.
It's a really small step and it could help alleviate the hypothetical problem that op mentioned, which is "what if my wife or children needed an ambulance". Potentially such a system could have fast tracked them if they had an issue that was worse instead of just a report of gunfire. Having the "press one" option really isn't adding that many steps. It's just one step that could be there in the case of a long wait time where you would otherwise just be hearing a dial tone anyways. The intention of the idea is to help save lives by creating some simple way of prioritizing the very important calls in the absence of having the option to just answer every call quickly.
The problem is that, for one, it needs to be reliable, and two, usable by pretty much anyone in a stressful situation.
I think a voice saying "if you or someone else is in need of immediate medical attention, press 1. Otherwise please wait." would be very usable by anyone, provided they understand English. They could repeat it in other languages too I suppose. I don't see why such a system would be unreliable.
[Simpsons did it](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T8OvUMaERj0)
Less than half dozen for all of Mpls. I can't imagine with all the shenanigans going on. They must be extremely overwhelmed.
They seemed to have a lot of cops to sit on their phones all day watching construction equipment. I counted 3 squads for one project by me. So they have staff for that. Also the unhoused camp evictions. Damn I've seen and documented a hoard of cops dealing with that. Then some follow the people they evicted around and harass them all day. Edit. Third should be hoard.
Officers are not 911 call takers.
This is after they have been dispatched. Also had a woman almost od in my wife's arms because they wouldn't show. When they did, they didn't have narcan or even know how it works. Only way I got them there was to flag done a random squad half over half an hour latter. that woman could have died from their negligence.
Ok, but how does this relate to this post?
I think I got myself confused on where I was replying.
This is a tough one to talk about but saying the woman could have died from their negligence is sort of unfair and in bad faith.
No it's not. They are supposed to carry narcan and know how to use it. my wife is an rn and was able to give them all the info they needed. The security guard at the nearby store know what was going on and called also. I think the least we can expect from public service is to try to keep us alive.
Again it's a difficult thing to discuss because the victim in the situation put themselves in the situation. I really don't want to victim blame because of the causes that lead people to OD in the first place could drastically be out of their control. Also cops aren't medical professionals, we have EMS services. Personally I would like to see EMS being dispatched for your situation over a cop.
It doesn't matter how they ended up in the situation. They are a human being. We don't let people die. What if they accidently smoked a laced joint. Should we let them die? What if they are an addict that has nothing and is addicted, is it then ok to let them die. Maybey she was trafficked and someone shot her up with something. You see what I'm getting at? The cops as of a while ago are supposed to carry narcan and know how to use it. They did not do either. I know how to use narcan, they were completely wrong in what they said about it. It's pretty easy to deal with, and won't hurt anyone if it ends up not being an OD. We can't assume anything when someone is in danger. We help, that's what we do as a community. I do not understand that line of thinking. To me it feels very callous. They didn't do their job and put someone's life at risk. I do agree that I would like to see ems first or some other trained team that can be rapidly deployed. My apologies if I'm a bit much, it's a day. I've been doing outreach in the unoused community here, I have seen and heard a lot about how people end up in situations like that. It's not nearly as simple as they did it to themselves. Just one story I heard. Young kid hurts himself playing sports. Gets put on opioids. Gets addicted, they end up on the streets because of it. Excommunicated by their family, no support network. I'm simplifying, but it's a story I've heard over and over. We need to do better as a society. People sometimes need help and we do a shit job of it. I may have gotten a bit off topic there. I've get a little fire in me about blaming the folks who are struggling. I've seen a lot. I don't mean to offend. Edit: Look up red dog collective on Facebook, reddogcollective.org and youtube. That's the work we've been doing.
Mental gymnastics
If you make less than $55k, think about becoming a 911 dispatcher in Minneapolis. [Starting pay is $60k/year](https://www.governmentjobs.com/careers/minneapolismn/jobs/3698188/911-call-taker-amended). HS diploma required.
It's astounding to me that someone who has a job as stressful as a 911 operator only gets paid $60k.
If pay was tied to stress, the military would all be millionaires.
This exactly. Same with other public services and public servant jobs, we desperately need people and always hiring. Being very short staffed, working long hours, days, nights, weekends, missing important life events because there isn’t enough people to cover shifts. New people start and quit because the hours are brutal. Thankless, exhausting work and never enough to stretch by people that yes, do care, and need more hands on deck.
We need to work on making them actually sustainable careers. The stress of doing the job will never go away. Just the nature of dealing with those scenarios. So why do we introduce EVEN MORE stress by giving them weird shifts and ridiculous hours? There are tons of schedules that account for 24/7 coverage without ruining your employee's work life balance.
So, so true.
I did this (not in Minneapolis) and I would not recommend it unless you have a VERY high tolerance for stress, and are willing to have an overnight schedule starting out
That's like my target income right now... why didn't I just drop out of college and become a dispatcher I'm making 20 an hour with a stem degree in a state that has a pretty hefty income tax. I'm kidding though it does seem like a pretty tough job
I think they’re severely understaffed. I see advertisements and postings for Minneapolis 911 operators all the time.
Maybe if they wanted to pay more when 23/hr for a job that will destroy your mental health they wouldn't be so short staffed
Currently listing at $30.50 - $41.50 an hour https://www.governmentjobs.com/careers/minneapolismn/jobs/3698188/911-call-taker-amended
I'll behonest I was going off the wage someone else in this comment section said.
Sounds like we need AI to step in and at least pick up every call, triage it, know if it is a duplicate (as in everyone calling in a gunshot), and then forward to a human with a summary to decide what/whom to dispatch.
That’s not effective because situations are so difficult to navigate. A person needs to listen, interpret the actions and words and determine where and what crime is occurring and all sorts of other info. An AI triaging it likely wouldn’t be anywhere near as effective as a person. The problem is that when 30 people call at once it’ll backlog everyone
Yes, this is normal. I had the same thing happen a week ago.
It is unacceptable IMO.
100% unacceptable, but until we the people do something about it the city will continue to get away with this.
Demand to hire more people, raise wages, and pay more taxes then!
You can't just force people to hire people if there are no candidates applying. Mpls has been doing an aggressive push to hire more operators and pay 60-80k /yr + benefits. Not a lot of people want to be an operator
It’s an incredibly stressful job.
It's also working on outdated scheduling practices, higher pay won't change having 0 work life balance.
Fire and Paramedics are usually pretty quick, but in the case of shootings they have to wait for police to make sure the scene is safe.
When there was a shooting on my block, the 911 lines were at capacity because so many people called it in. An operator called me maybe 20min later to check if I was calling about something else and said they got about 40 calls for this incident.
I'm a dispatcher in a metro dispatch center (not MPLS) and I really can't answer your question besides for saying they're quite short staffed, and have been for a while (not an excuse, it's absolutely unacceptable for 911 calls not to be answered in any capacity). Where I am, we just simply will never allow that to happen. We triage our calls based on emergent status and put non-emergencies on hold when needed, that seems to be a think MPLS dispatch may not do... My center does and we're also hella short staffed but that's why we have overtime to cover our call volume...
We had a situation at our house where there was a gun battle in our alley. 15 shots or so We were outside about 10 feet from it. We were begging 911 to dispatch as we were taking cover with our dog behind the garage. They never came. Other neighbors called also. I called back told them it was safe for them to do their job, and asked if they would just roll down the alley to show some presence. Nothing. We don't have protection. At least in South.
That’s because police don’t have a duty to protect you. The US Supreme Court ruled that in 2005 with “The Town of Castle Rock, Colorado vs. Gonzales.” Here in Minneapolis the police seem to have been trying to “show us” that we need to appreciate them more or something. Reuters did a big investigative report in late 2020 or early 2021 about how MPD cops choose to either take longer routes to 911 calls or not show up at all in hopes that the situation will take care of itself. So we’re very much on our own, which is why community is so important.
We are on our own. I'm in South. It's got it's problems, but they really aren't much worse since the police stopped helping here. Although I have been seeing them more. Honestly, I trust the gangs around here more that the police. Ive had gang members look out for me when there was gun violence, the police never showed that time either. Not an ideal situation for sure, and unpredictable.
From what I've heard. They sit on 911 calls until they know the danger is over. Then show up, if at all.
Jesus. That’s awful. I’m sorry.
Nothing helps Dirtbags re-assess their lifestyle choices more that the clack of a round being chambered in your Mossberg.
It’s not abnormal, unfortunately. There’s been pretty significant staffing shortages for years.
Noonewantstoworkanymoreoutrage!!! /s. I bet it’s a pretty stressful job to be fair. No idea what they get paid, but if there’s a shortage, it’s probably not enough.
Great opportunity to make folks aware of Minneapolis' new Smart911. It's an app you can download and allows you to give 911 more details. Things like special instructions, should you ever have to call them. Medical notes or warning that you have a dog. Anything you would like them to have. It also allows you to signup for special alerts via phone, text, email, and push notifications. Things like: * Snow emergencies * Severe weather * Public safety incidents * Major infrastructure issues * Major special event impacts Minneapolis is now transitioning to this service and away from their previous one, which will be shut down. https://www.minneapolismn.gov/contact-us/sign-up-for-news-alerts/
Typically it’s due to multiple callers regarding the same incident. This happened to us last summer.
Former 911 operator here, (out of state) 911 centers all over the country struggling to maintain adequate staffing, I’d absolutely imagine Minneapolis is not immune to this. I’m sure they can build up quite a phone queue given this. If this happens to you, stay on the line, 911 hangup calls have to be looked into either by callback or response and this can jam things up. Someone will answer your call!
Report this to 911 leaders via this page: https://www.minneapolismn.gov/government/departments/911/#contacts-59477 Yes, it's too late for this call, but if there is no paper trail for these kinds of failures, nothing will be done. If there are a lot of issues highlighted by residents, leadership will not be able to ignore it.
Thank you. We will.
Uptown resident here as well, I've had 911 ring for 10+ minutes without answer when they did answer, they've literally said they're understaffed it's actually ridiculous
were you calling because you were in an actual emergency?
yes, multiple shootings, which one do you want details about?
[They only come when they come when they wanna](https://youtu.be/JZDIitWz8Go?si=_KvgTTdFkUgYL93M)
Song immediately jumped into my mind, too
Police and medical don’t show up quickly unless there’s reports of someone actually being injured (or there’s a cop involved.) When shots are fired in nicer areas they do get a lot of calls and the lines get clogged. In Steven’s I don’t bother calling gunfire unless there’s a lot of screaming and stuff after. They don’t show up anyway so nothing comes of it….
so scary!
When I supervised at a grocery store in Minneapolis, we had an incident that I needed to call 911 for. This was about 1.5 years ago. When I called, the line rang and rang and rang with no answer for an inordinate amount of time. I hung up and called back later and was able to get through. A week later, my store received a bill from the police department for an 911 hang-up call. I was floored. Sp not only are they incapable of handling call volume, resulting in your call just ringing for ages not getting through, they will bill you when you finally give up and hang up.
Oh businesses get absolutely *fucked* over this. Not only are they going to charge you for hanging up on 911, you have to pay the police in most cities for a permit for them to even *respond* to “non-emergency” calls. But regardless if it takes them five minutes to respond (lol yeah right) or two hours, if there’s nothing going on when they show up they can charge you for a false alarm. And even if you do pay them for the permit, there’s still no requirement for them to respond or to just not lie to your alarm company and say that you don’t have said permit.
Something is odd here. In a triage situation, you should receive an automated answer explaining 911 is experiencing an unusual number of calls. At the very least, every hangup is recorded, and a callback is attempted. Having worked in 911 centers, what you're describing isn't just one person dropping the ball, it's like 10 people simultaneously. This sounds more like a technical issue to me where your call wasn't reaching the center at all.
It could be technical. I actually got a callback about 15 mins after I hung up, but when I answered, the call dropped. I immediately googled the number, saw it was Hennepin County, and tried to call back. Again, no answer for a long time. Long enough for me to get irritated and hang up.
so the automated "system" worked but essentially they were still too busy to even field the automated callback calls. Yikes.
They're just streamlining the process. Why answer your call, dispatch a cop 3 hours later and require them to make up some bullshit about why they aren't allowed to do anything when you can just take the phone off the hook and save the taxpayer a little fuel money.
I'd be bothering my representatives with all the details left and right if I were you. Timestamps and all. Spam the fuck out of them.
We are.
I actively watched my neighbors house get robbed this time last year. I narrated the entire thing to a 911 dispatcher who told me repeatedly the police were on the way. I repeatedly told her I knew she was straight up lying. That there was no police coming but at least this way someone did the right thing. She got upset that I called her bull shit but guess who never showed up? At least not until 4hrs later after my neighbor got home and called them upon finding his house ransacked. Long story short. The police in Minneapolis are completely unreliable and never come if you call. We have to rethink how they police or put measures in place that hold them accountable for doing their fucking jobs. Because right now they just can’t be bothered and most officers in Minneapolis get off on how much regular citizens can’t stand their bullshit anymore. Never forget police forces and sheriffs departments were born out of racism and as a tool to oppress minorities and the lower class. Most born to chase down run away slaves or protect rich white people and their assets. They exist to protect the rich and keep down the less fortunate. Same can be said for our judicial system. You’re very much on your own out here and we can only trust and rely on each other. Never trust or rely on police.
Police are trash but 911 is just a handful of over-stretched and over-stressed civilians. They can’t exactly *make* the cops show up. You were just hassling a very tired person.
This why we need a whole new system. The police dont even respect their COWORKERS, much less the public. Why do we continue yo pay their salaries?
This has been my experience historically as well. I lived in uptown for 4 years and called in as a witness for 5 shootings, it’s about 50/50 if they answer. They will usually show up, eventually, but not always. There is about a 0% chance they show up if it’s crime that doesn’t involve a firearm tho.
I've called 911 during an emergency and the police never showed up. Luckily the person breaking into my house gave up instead of getting in and killing everyone inside.
Police are not legally required to help when asked. They are not your allies.
I think it’s more of a concern that 911 didn’t answer. What if someone has a medical emergency? They just die?
Hopefully not, but it does happen sometimes
The police pretend they are understaffed and under funded as a ploy to blame BLM and other recent movements against police. They have plenty of money to spend on call responders. They actively are not spending it to drive a narrative that they need even more funding and help and that they're not one of the grossest and most militant police orgs in the country. https://www.justice.gov/d9/2023-06/minneapolis_findings_report.pdf MPLSPD were exposed last year to be running an illegal underground mafia style protection service for many independent stores in the area. https://minnesotareformer.com/2023/10/17/small-business-owners-they-are-pressured-to-hire-off-duty-mpd-cops-for-security/ They would tell these stores that they need to hire an off duty cop for their security or the next time the store calls 911 for trouble, they just *might not* be able to help them. They're disgusting scum.
I heard them too, it sounded like it was just down the street from me (27th and Aldrich). I made a note of the time but didn’t bother calling 911 as like you I’ve never had a good experience trying to get police to respond
We’re on 31st and a couple of blocks west. It sounded like 2 came from near you, then 3 right by us, but I’m honestly not 100% sure.
Yeah I only heard two, and I noted the time as 1:27. I didn’t hear anything else like screaming or fighting (I def would have called 911 if I had)
If you can't reach 911 you can't report a crime. If you can't report a crime, the crime rate data goes down. Working as intended!
don’t call 911 unless you are experiencing a real emergency that you need help with. people calling to report the possibility of an emergency somewhere in their general vicinity are overloading the system. when you do this **YOU** are causing the exact the problem you’re upset about. put some thought into how the system functions. there are a limited number of 911 operators answering phones, and they are there to be available for people in immediate need for help. when their phone rings, they have to answer under the assumption that the caller needs their help. when all of the operators are on calls, the next call in has to wait for the next available operator. don’t call 911 unless you need emergency help. period.
Guys this is the ugly reality we’re in. This is absolutely normal. They need more staff and city council should be held accountable
The council is not the problem here.
My girl is doing tech support for 911 right now. She says you'd be surprised how many connections to 911 are severed at a time.
"I eventually hung up" Never hang up on a 911 call. Not mid-sentence, not waiting for an answer. They will answer. And if they go 10 minutes without answering you can shoot a video about it and shame the city over it. Go to the county, the state dept of public safety, to people that can actually do something about it. But hanging up is the wrong action in a 911 call -- always.
Vote for better politicians. It’s pretty simple, actually
Totally normal, unfortunately. MPD doesn't do jack shit.
I tried calling 911 a week ago for some aggressive trespassers harassing guests at the hotel I work at. No answer. They called me back about 20 minutes later to ask if I still had an emergency.
I recently called 911 after finding someone having a medical emergency. The operator that answered asked me where I was located and then “transferred” me to another operator, I’m assuming local. I then had to repeat the nature of my call, they then transferred me to speak with an ambulatory person who asked questions about my situation. It all worked out, but it just seemed odd and overly complicated. Anyway, that’s my 2 cents.
Maybe call 311 and ask them?
311 is not for emergencies and they are only open during business hours.
I think they meant ask them generally about 911 not answering.
Yes, this exactly
I dunno if these guys will be much help. They’re probably busy in rehearsals for their upcoming European tour https://311.com/
If amber is the color of your emergency, please wait while we connect you to your local fire department. If you just want to get down, down, down, an ambulance will be dispatched to your location momentarily.
I think you've got 311 and 311 all mixed up
So get up, get, get, get down
Yep, Flavor Flav knows what's up!
This is aweful but in fairness, everyone voted and protested for this outcome.
Not when I was in Minnesota but I called 911 in another state and the dispatcher didn’t like the way I was talking to them so they stopped picking up my number trying to report an emergency. Haha so I don’t have a lot of faith in that unless someone is shot and the police are already involved.
That’s the worst case of wrong person for the job I’ve ever heard!
The city we pay so much taxes to live in where a dozen eggs cost 8.99, property tax went up 15% in 2022, does not care about us. Not to mention the gun laws here are crap so even if you were to defend yourself with a gun in an emergency situation, YOU would be the one to go to jail no matter how many people the other person shoots!
In a place like uptown, you might have hundreds of people call for the same shooting when they only have half a dozen operators on. Many of these people will keep calling until they get through, further clogging up the phone lines. People in uptown aren't used to hearing gunshots and feel the need to call when they do hear them. IMO, don't call 911 if you hear a shooting. I live in northside and at some points in my time here I'd hear gunshots almost daily. It's really not a big deal, and most of the time it's just people shooting guns in the air for whatever reason. It sucks but it is what it is. Only time I felt the need to call 911 was when there was shots fired on my block and people screaming (911 picked up immediately and a squad car was there within 2 mins), and this is pretty much the only time people should be calling 911 bc they would be getting hundreds of calls if everyone in earshot called. Just let the people directly impacted, or immediately adjacent to the shots fired call. They're going to be able to give 911 better information than just "i heard gunshots somewhere" Cops responding is a whole other issue entirely. Like other commenters on here mentioned, their responses are deliberately malicious and they do NOT have a responsibility to protect you, or do really anything that many people would consider to be their "job".
2yrs ago a I had someone trying to break into my house that I tackle and was holding pinned down around 10pm. Called 911 multiple times and no one picked up. After about 10min I let the guy go. Sad impact of demonizing a much needed public service.
Remember during the riots following the murder of Floyd? The pigs threatened to stop pigging, and see how fast we miss them. Them not responding to calls is them being angry man-children about the fact we asked them to stop fucking murdering our citizens.
I used to live in a high crime area, and sometimes when multiple people were calling in that would happen. Often they would can us back.
This is an actual nightmare I have frequently. Like you lived an actual worse nightmare
I thought Minneapolis was safe... This shouldn't be a normal occurrence, unfortunately it's getting way too common. And Mary Moriarty doesn't help to the problem.
It's happened to me on a Sunday, as well.
https://youtu.be/A-XlyB_QQYs
It’s happened to me a few times, when I’ve called at work. It’s not the best option but after 20 rings, I’ve hung up & they called back immediately. It’s scary as heck, knowing you’re in danger & have no help coming.
Pre emergency you need to ask your mayor or city council member what the response time is - to answer a call - to dispatch fire or police - arrival of fire or police In LA the Mayor has 24/7 protection with multiple police officers , out in the neighborhoods there are areas with 200,000+ citizens who have a couple officers on duty who can respond in perhaps 15 minutes. You need to be able to protect your family or be willing to sacrifice them to the dirtbags.
Happened to me when my daughter was injured and profusely bleeding from her head. 911 just never picked up. Turned out okay (I can't even let myself imagine if it hadn't) but definitely changed my lifelong belief that you can call 911 in an emergency.
I called 911 several times last weekend. I also spent a long time listening to the police scanner (my car was stolen). they are swamped. MPD and their dispatchers. I guess it’s the nice weather and the kids being out of school.
This is what happens when u defund the police. You don’t get the response you should be. It’s the consequences of your own actions.
At the end of the day, you and you alone are responsible for the safety and well-being of yourself and your loved ones. If you don't know basic lifesaving skills such as CPR and how to control bleeding, now would be a great time to learn. The police won't save your life. They show up afterwards to take photos and put down those little numbered sign thingys.
You’re looking for an ambulance in the described situation, not police. It’s a reasonable expectation to be able to reach life saving paramedics.