911: From the Ashland County Sheriff’s Department

ASHLAND COUNTY, WI — The Ashland County Communications Center (ACCC) dispatches for all of Ashland County, including the City of Ashland. This includes emergency and non-emergency calls, for Fire, EMS, and Law Enforcement.

We’d like to take a minute of your time to remind you what 911 service is all about, what it’s used for, and what it shouldn’t be used for.

9-1-1 is a telephone number that you can call 24 hours a day, seven days a week, for police, fire, or emergency medical services. 9-1-1 saves valuable time in an emergency. According to nationwide statistics, it can take up to 2.5 minutes to find your telephone directory, and another 30 seconds to locate the correct number. In an emergency, three minutes is a long time – time that can be saved by remembering to call 9-1-1!

Some examples of proper uses of 9-1-1:

• Someone having a heart attack.
• A dog that looks like it might bite someone.
• Someone trying to break into your home.
• A child being approached by a stranger.
• You see smoke, or you see something on fire.

Some examples of when not to call 9-1-1: In these cases it would be better to use our non-emergency number: 715-682-7023 opt. 1:

• Reporting power outages.
• Asking for directions.
• The cat is stuck in a tree.

Remember, 9-1-1 is to be used for emergencies, in other words, an immediate response of
Police, Fire, or EMS.

If there is a doubt of whether 9-1-1 should be used, by all means, dial 9-1-1. If someone dials 9-1-1 in a non-emergency, they will still get the appropriate help they need. If you were to dial 9-1-1 for a non-emergency call, the dispatcher may ask you to hang up and call the non-emergency number.

The ACCC has a limited number of 9-1-1 phone circuits available, and this is just to clear the emergency lines, so a more urgent call gets the attention it needs.

Here are some tips for calling the ACCC for both emergency and non-emergency calls:

• Get to a safe place before dialing. If your house is on fire, get out first.
• Take a deep breath before dialing. The dispatcher will have questions for you, and the better you can answer them, the faster help will arrive.
• Post your address, phone number, and closest intersection by each telephone in your house. This will help someone calling 9-1-1 that is not familiar with the area.
• Be sure your house number is visible and clear.
• Do not hang up on the dispatcher until they say it’s OK to do so.
• If you dial 9-1-1 by mistake, do not hang up. Stay on the line and explain to the dispatcher that you dialed by mistake. If you hang up, the dispatcher will try to call you back to confirm there is no emergency, and will also send an officer just to verify.
• Program the non-emergency number (715-682-7023) into your phones to access this number easily.
• If you give an old cell phone to a child to play with, remove the battery. Even if the phone is not “active,” it can still dial 9-1-1.
• Keep your cell phone locked when not in use. The ACCC receive a fair number of “pocket dials” from cell phones, and keeping them locked would minimize these. Also, some cell phones have an “emergency” key, that when pressed will automatically dial 9-1-1.

And speaking of cell phones, we have the ability to plot most of these calls on a map, and this assists us to get help to you more quickly.

So, with these tips in mind, remember that the ACCC is here to serve the community, andwe are here 24/7, for you! As we wind into the winter months ahead, try to keep warm, and  be safe!

Read the story here.

Related Stories

• No Related Post