911 zona norte will be inaugurated today

dv8

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Sep 27, 2006
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much awaited emergency response system for the north zone will be inaugurated by danilo today at 5 pm.
911 system is already in operation in SD and some locations in the south. it offers help in cases of accidents, fires, health emergencies and criminal cases (and excessive noise).
HQ of the north zone is in santiago but equipment and people are distributed in all areas covered by 911 in santiago and puerto plata provinces.

https://www.diariolibre.com/noticia...ura-hoy-el-9-1-1-en-la-region-norte-AN7294615
 

windeguy

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Jul 10, 2004
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Question on new 911 service and ways to dial in

I know, you have a cell phone or land line with local service and dial 911 and that gets you into the local 911 system..

But, if you don't have a cell phone or local land line available, is there a direct dial 809 or 829 number that can be dialed from a non-DR telephone, or one that is in another part of the DR perhaps, to call into north coast 911 system using 10 digit number?
 

dv8

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Sep 27, 2006
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you'd have to call individual police station in the area. google is your fren here. i called several police stations all over DR in recent years and i always connected without problems.
alternatively, you can call local ambulance service, clinic or fire department depending on your emergency.
 

windeguy

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Jul 10, 2004
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you'd have to call individual police station in the area. google is your fren here. i called several police stations all over DR in recent years and i always connected without problems.
alternatively, you can call local ambulance service, clinic or fire department depending on your emergency.

I suspected they had not thought of such an eventuality. You have had amazing luck.

Those various numbers hardly ever change and are always answered. :dead:
That would by my experience.
 

TropicalPaul

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Sep 3, 2013
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I think I'm right in saying that if your non-DR cellphone is roaming, so for example you have an American AT&T phone and it is roaming while you are here in DR, it will be connected to Claro for example. And if you dial 911 from that phone, Claro will recognise this as an emergency call and put you through to the emergency number. I don't quite understand why you would want to be able to dial the North Coast 911 service from anywhere else apart from the North Coast, so I doubt they will give you this facility.

One other point to bear in mind is that the 911 service in Santo Domingo was plagued with hoax calls when it first started, they managed to get this down by forcing everyone who owns a cellphone to register it to their cedula, and paying them a visit if their cellphone was used for a hoax. I don't think they would encourage calls to be generated from services such as Skype to 911 purely because they couldn't be traced.
 

retiree

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Jan 18, 2008
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Hope there will be reports about whether it is working well and the response times in various areas.
 

windeguy

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Jul 10, 2004
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TropicalPaul, here is the reason for my question. First some background information. I do not own a cell phone. I have never owned a smart phone. I have a Vonage phone.

What if you were a home owner on the north coast with an alarm system and you were anywhere else but on the north coast when your alarm goes off, and you want to call the police on the north coast. DV8 says you will have to direct dial in to the police station.

What if you were home and do not own a cell phone, or the battery is dead in it, and you do have Vonage, or OOMA, or another VOIP dialing system and you want to call the police. Once again you will have to direct dial in.

I was just wondering if the DR had direct dial in 10 digit numbers that reached the various 911 call centers. Instead you will need a list of currently working police, ambulance, etc numbers.

Here is another question. Let's say you have a cell phone but it is not activated on any carrier. In the USA, that cell phone can still dial the 911 system a far as I know. Can that cell phone dial the 911 system in the DR?
 

Tom0910

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Sep 28, 2015
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TropicalPaul, here is the reason for my question. First some background information. I do not own a cell phone. I have never owned a smart phone. I have a Vonage phone.

What if you were a home owner on the north coast with an alarm system and you were anywhere else but on the north coast when your alarm goes off, and you want to call the police on the north coast. DV8 says you will have to direct dial in to the police station.

What if you were home and do not own a cell phone, or the battery is dead in it, and you do have Vonage, or OOMA, or another VOIP dialing system and you want to call the police. Once again you will have to direct dial in.

I was just wondering if the DR had direct dial in 10 digit numbers that reached the various 911 call centers. Instead you will need a list of currently working police, ambulance, etc numbers.

Here is another question. Let's say you have a cell phone but it is not activated on any carrier. In the USA, that cell phone can still dial the 911 system a far as I know. Can that cell phone dial the 911 system in the DR?
Why would they dedicate a line for the .0001% of the population that does not own a cell phone,lol. My 89 year old father has a cell phone,has never used it once but keeps it in his car just in case he needs it for an emergency and needs to dial 911.
 

Cdn_Gringo

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Apr 29, 2014
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Someone needs to call Claro and ask if the VOIP telephones they provide are 911 compatible or I guess you could just dial 911 like everyone else is doing today and see what happens.

Now that I have stopped shaking my head; Since 911 is intended to be an easier and quicker means of accessing help when it is required, we have to ask ourselves easier than what? The fact is 911 is supposed to be a one stop colamdo of sorts for assistance. An easier one telephone number option for those who have difficulty programming a 10 digit number into their phone and labeling it ambulance, or noise police.

Those who do not own a compatible telephone and choose not to get one, accept that they must continue to do as they do now - keep a list of numbers to call depending on the nature of the service required. Those pre-911 telephone numbers haven't changed.

The service is focused on the premise that users can dial 911 and get connected. In Canada, we have 911, and it has never occurred to me to ask for a number other than 911 to reach them. Then again, I haven't had the need to use a telephone system that isn't 911 compatible within the established system. I do remember that at least for a period of time, ads for these voip services back home made sure customers knew that 911 service wasn't offered to their subscribers. I can understand the attraction of ooma and vonage for those in this country that frequently make calls off island or choose for whatever reason not to irradiate their brains or private parts with a cell. However, these people, if they wish to make use of 911 while in the DR need to go out and buy a cheap burner cell phone and place it a nice glass case with a sign that reads, "in case of emergency break glass and dial 911." Those that see themselves lounging in a bistro of Park Ave. and still wish to be able to call 911 in Santiago because their burglar alarm is going off (on the North Coast), at least temporarily may have forgotten where they live.

I am sure that there is a real telephone on many desks in the 911 office. I don't think the service wants the public to be calling their favorite 911 dispatcher to ask how they are doing that day. The system is geared towards being accessed by dialing 911 so that any location data and database searches can be performed quickly and automatically (Ha!).

Let's face it, if you are away from home and your burglar alarm goes off, the siren will burn itself out long before the cops get there to steal everything the first set of thieves left behind. A cheap cellphone (not a smart phone, the user doesn't have to be particularly smart either) can be had for 1/2 the cost of a bag of dog food - go get one and you too can play 911 along with your friends and neighbors. Otherwise, just keep doing what you are doing now with your list of telephone numbers on a sticky next to the phone. Take the sticky with you if you aren't going to be at home.

It's sort of like buying a 1941 Packard Clipper and then being miffed that you can't buy leaded gasoline to put in it. Add your own lead if that's the car you want to drive. Don't wish to own a cell phone, fine, no problem, that's your choice. Cell phones make some things easier, accessing 911 happens to be one of those things in this country.
 

USA DOC

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Feb 20, 2016
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.... not to worry...the use of a cell phone, I think is not the problem here... its whats happens after you call 911, or more likely what doesnt happen....If I can become a whiz on a samsung galaxie at about 300 years old ...anyone can....Doc....
 

windeguy

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Jul 10, 2004
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Why would they dedicate a line for the .0001% of the population that does not own a cell phone,lol. My 89 year old father has a cell phone,has never used it once but keeps it in his car just in case he needs it for an emergency and needs to dial 911.

I don't expect they would have such direct dial line in, but you never know. It could also be of use to people out of their own region.

As for my having a cell phone, maybe some day. The DR just got 911 service where I live.;)
 

windeguy

Platinum
Jul 10, 2004
42,211
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113
Someone needs to call Claro and ask if the VOIP telephones they provide are 911 compatible or I guess you could just dial 911 like everyone else is doing today and see what happens.

Now that I have stopped shaking my head; Since 911 is intended to be an easier and quicker means of accessing help when it is required, we have to ask ourselves easier than what? The fact is 911 is supposed to be a one stop colamdo of sorts for assistance. An easier one telephone number option for those who have difficulty programming a 10 digit number into their phone and labeling it ambulance, or noise police.

Those who do not own a compatible telephone and choose not to get one, accept that they must continue to do as they do now - keep a list of numbers to call depending on the nature of the service required. Those pre-911 telephone numbers haven't changed.

The service is focused on the premise that users can dial 911 and get connected. In Canada, we have 911, and it has never occurred to me to ask for a number other than 911 to reach them. Then again, I haven't had the need to use a telephone system that isn't 911 compatible within the established system. I do remember that at least for a period of time, ads for these voip services back home made sure customers knew that 911 service wasn't offered to their subscribers. I can understand the attraction of ooma and vonage for those in this country that frequently make calls off island or choose for whatever reason not to irradiate their brains or private parts with a cell. However, these people, if they wish to make use of 911 while in the DR need to go out and buy a cheap burner cell phone and place it a nice glass case with a sign that reads, "in case of emergency break glass and dial 911." Those that see themselves lounging in a bistro of Park Ave. and still wish to be able to call 911 in Santiago because their burglar alarm is going off (on the North Coast), at least temporarily may have forgotten where they live.

I am sure that there is a real telephone on many desks in the 911 office. I don't think the service wants the public to be calling their favorite 911 dispatcher to ask how they are doing that day. The system is geared towards being accessed by dialing 911 so that any location data and database searches can be performed quickly and automatically (Ha!).

Let's face it, if you are away from home and your burglar alarm goes off, the siren will burn itself out long before the cops get there to steal everything the first set of thieves left behind. A cheap cellphone (not a smart phone, the user doesn't have to be particularly smart either) can be had for 1/2 the cost of a bag of dog food - go get one and you too can play 911 along with your friends and neighbors. Otherwise, just keep doing what you are doing now with your list of telephone numbers on a sticky next to the phone. Take the sticky with you if you aren't going to be at home.

It's sort of like buying a 1941 Packard Clipper and then being miffed that you can't buy leaded gasoline to put in it. Add your own lead if that's the car you want to drive. Don't wish to own a cell phone, fine, no problem, that's your choice. Cell phones make some things easier, accessing 911 happens to be one of those things in this country.

Calling CLARO to see if my VOIP phone would work to call 911 would be a fruitless call. I know my Vonage line won't do it, which is why I asked my question about another way to dial in.

When I was in the US, I would never have thought to ask for a an alternate number to call in because I would either call from my land line if home or use my company provided cell phone until I no longer worked for a company that provided one and that is going back 15 years now.

That does beg the question if a non-activated cell phone can still dial 911 in the DR, or having that burner in my glass case would be for naught.

If I had a car that needed leaded gas, I would have hard-alloy valve seat inserts installed if I still wanted the car.

Maybe some day I will have a cell phone.