Stupid Guest Tricks

On my way home from work I get cut off by some a-hole riding a cr*** rocket (souped up bike made to go very fast) who was speeding, weaving in and out of traffic, and doing other very dangerous things. He made me hit my brakes to avoid hitting him. Really bright buddy, cut off the guy in the 1/2 ton van while riding on an open bike that weighs no where near that much.

He scared me so badly I called 911. The operator connected me to the sheriff's office. I gave the best description I could and the last direction I saw him heading but he left me behind so fast I couldn't be 100% sure on the last part and I didn't get a plate number as he was only in a position for me to read it for a few seconds and that entire time I was working to avoid hitting him.

I thought about calling the sheriff's office directly (I have their number in my phone) but decided that this guy was such a menace 911 was the proper number to call. I hope they caught the guy and charged him with as many charges as possible. Reckless driving, reckless endangerment, failure to yield, traveling at an unsafe speed, following to closely, illegal lane changes, and whatever else the officers can come up with. This guy was putting everybody at risk and shouldn't be on the road.

Found out a cool feature about my phone during this call. I already knew about the E911 system that uses GPS to allow 911 centers to know the exact location of a cell phone while connected to them. My phone has a special mode that it automatically enters when 911 is dialed. My phone made a weird beep when I dialed but I didn't worry about it as the call continued connecting. After I hung up it made the beep again. I look at the screen and on it said "Emergency Mode". I parked at the store (the incident happened near this store) where I was going and look again and it still said that but I saw that one of the buttons was marked "exit". I hit it and the phone returned to normal mode. After shopping I decided to put my groceries into the van and walk over to the Verizon Store (my provider) that is a few doors down from the grocery store in the same shopping center to ask them about it. Apparently "Emergency Mode" is a mode that continually updates 911 about the phone's location even when the phone is hung up allowing emergency assistance to have an easier time finding the location. I'm trying to find out more information on Verizon's website but it isn't getting along with me at the moment.

I found nothing about "Emergency Mode" on Verizon's site but found some things using Google.

Emergency mode locks the phone to the best compatible signal available regardless of provider, locks the menus, and the only outgoing call that can be made is to 911. All good things that are helpful.

Apparently the harp sound I heard when starting and ending the call was Verizon's (and possibly a few other provider's) misinterpretation of part of the FCC E911 requirements. Supposedly it makes the phone more usable by the disabled. How it helps I don't see but can easily see how it could be dangerous.

What if I was in the backroom at work and looking around the corner I saw we were getting robbed? I would go in back and call 911 but the alarm would alert the bad guy of my presence.

What if someone gets carjacked and tries dialing 911 discreetly so they can get help? The carjacker would definitely hear the alarm and would possibly know that 911 or at least someone was called and be probably be made very upset.

Same if they are hiding in a closet from a home invader or something. The alarm would tell the bad guy right where to look.

Another possibly not so good feature of Emergency Mode is that all incoming calls ring at the loudest setting no matter the regular mode (silence all, vibrate, etc) the phone is in. Good if emergency services are trying to locate someone, bad if someone is trying to hide from a home invader or something and 911 calls back after a disconnect.

If someone needs to call 911 in an emergency is not always something that needs to be announced to everybody around. The above situations are examples of that.

There's no way to turn off this alarm on most phones either. I'm tempted to send a complaint letter to Verizon, LG, and the FCC about this as the alarm can easily become more of a liability for the person than an asset.

One thing I noticed that is really neither good nor bad is that 911 calls don't show up in the call logs. According to my logs I never called 911 today though of course I know I did. I guess this is partly so that one doesn't accidentally redial 911 later on. 911 is easy enough to dial it is OK that it doesn't show up in the logs.

It'll take someone getting killed to make that change.

There was a recent killing in my old home town that shows just how dangerous that can be. I hail from Tinley Park, where six women were shot in Lane Bryant, five of whom died. The thing that provoked the killer into shooting them was overhearing one of them making a 911 call (he had tied them up in a back room, but somehow one had managed to dial her phone). The 911 call is eerie, with her pleading for help to hurry and then a sudden disconnection...apparently the surviving victim explains that the killer overheard the 911 operator, even tho' the caller was whispering, and popped off in a shooting frenzy. That store is within walking distance of my condo...very, very sick and creepy.