Emergency services and rescue services are organizations that ensure public safety , security , and health by addressing and resolving different emergencies . Some of these agencies exist solely for addressing certain types of emergencies, while others deal with ad hoc emergencies as part of their normal responsibilities. Many of these agencies engage in community awareness and prevention programs to help the public avoid, detect, and report emergencies effectively. Emergency services are often considered first responders , and typically have dedicated emergency vehicles .
60-974: Emergency services have one or more dedicated emergency telephone numbers reserved for critical emergency calls. In many countries, one number is used for all of the emergency services (e.g. 911 in many parts of the Americas , 999 in the United Kingdom , 112 in continental Europe , 000 in Australia ). In some countries, each emergency service has its own emergency number (e.g. 110 for police, 118 for coast guard, 119 for fire and medical in Japan ; 110 for police, 119 for fire, 120 for medical in China ). Calls made to emergency services to report emergencies are called calls for service . The availability of emergency services depends very heavily on location, and may in some cases also rely on
120-404: A 3D environment ( Google Earth ) to unlock the ability to observe the operations on a mass scale. A common measurement in benchmarking the efficacy of emergency services is response time, the amount of time that it takes for emergency responders to arrive at the scene of an incident after the emergency response system was activated. Due to the nature of emergencies, fast response times are often
180-421: A 6-feet-tall humanoid, robots, drones, and autonomous aircraft and ground vehicles. The command and control center optimizes the available resources to serve every incoming requests and generates an action plan for the mission. The Wi-Fi network is created on the fly by the drones equipped with antennas. In addition, the autonomous rotorcrafts, planes, and ground vehicles are simulated with Simulink and visualized in
240-411: A SIM card. For example, to decrease the risk of nuisance calls , French and British networks typically do not allow emergency calls without a SIM card. The GSM phones may regard some phone numbers with one or two digits as special service codes. It might be impossible to make an emergency call to numbers like 03 or 92 with a mobile phone. In those cases the emergency number has to be called by using
300-638: A centre. In the most remote communities, two 0s had to be used to reach a main centre; thus dialing 0+0, plus another 0 would call (at least) an operator. Zero is closest to the finger stall on Australian rotary dial phones, so it was easy to dial in darkness. The Telecommunications Numbering Plan 1997, also administered by ACMA, specifies that: 1122 is an emergency telephone number in Pakistan. It can be used to call for fire and medical emergencies. The International Telecommunication Union has officially set two standard emergency phone numbers for countries to use in
360-418: A crucial component of the emergency service system. Emergency telephone number An emergency telephone number is a number that allows a caller to contact local emergency services for assistance. The emergency number differs from country to country; it is typically a three-digit number so that it can be easily remembered and dialed quickly. Some countries have a different emergency number for each of
420-415: A database, and mobile callers through triangulation from towers or GPS on the device. This is often specifically mandated in a country's telecommunication law. When an emergency happened in the pre-dial (or "manual") telephone era, the user simply picked up the telephone receiver and waited for the operator to answer "number, please?". The user then responded with "get me the police", "I'm calling to report
480-658: A drastic decrease in costs for each company (by cost sharing) and the development of efficient tools (standards, software). Benchmarking can be internal (comparing performance between different groups or teams within an organization) or external (comparing performance with companies in a specific industry or across industries). Within these broader categories, there are three specific types of benchmarking: 1) Process benchmarking, 2) Performance benchmarking and 3) Strategic benchmarking. These can be further detailed as follows: Benchmarking software can be used to organize large and complex amounts of information. Software packages can extend
540-473: A fire", or "I need an ambulance/doctor". Even in large cities, it was seldom necessary to ask for these services by number. In small towns, operators frequently provided additional services, knowing where to reach doctors, veterinarians, law enforcement personnel and firefighters at all times. Frequently, the operator was also responsible for activating the town's fire alarm. When manual switching systems began to be replaced by automatic, or "dial" systems, there
600-429: A gun. The new weapon left only a mark on the target, where the arrow used to be visible, and with the bow gone, the soldiers title changed to marksman , the man who put the mark. The gun improved in the early beginning with rifled barrels. With the industrialization of the weapon industry in the mid-1800s, the mass production of ammunition as a cartridge replaced the manual loading. Now, with standardized production of both
660-729: A landline telephone or with an additional first/last digit (for example 922 or 992 instead of 92 and 003 or 033 instead of 03). In the United States, the FCC requires networks to route every mobile-phone and payphone 911 call to an emergency service call center, including phones that have never had service, or whose service has lapsed. As a result, there are programs that provide donated used mobile phones to victims of domestic violence and others especially likely to need emergency services. Since 2020, emergency responders have been able to better locate callers who dial 911 on their cellphones from indoors as
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#1732845393180720-582: A long distance or special number call.) The first 911 emergency phone system went into use by the Alabama Telephone Company in Haleyville, Alabama in 1968. On February 16, 1968, the first-ever 9-1-1 call was placed by Alabama Speaker of the House Rankin Fite, from Haleyville City Hall, to U.S. Rep. Tom Bevill, at the city's police station. However, 911 systems were not in widespread use until
780-479: A metric of performance that is then compared to others. Also referred to as "best practice benchmarking" or "process benchmarking", this process is used in management in which organizations evaluate various aspects of their processes in relation to best-practice companies' processes, usually within a peer group defined for the purposes of comparison. This then allows organizations to develop plans on how to make improvements or adapt specific best practices, usually with
840-400: A network of benchmarking centres representing 22 countries. There is no single benchmarking process that has been universally adopted. The wide appeal and acceptance of benchmarking has led to the emergence of benchmarking methodologies. One seminal book is Boxwell's Benchmarking for Competitive Advantage (1994). The first book on benchmarking, written and published by Kaiser Associates, is
900-559: A number of other reasons, including professional versus voluntary crew members, or simply based on area or division. To aid effective communications, different services may share common practices and protocol for certain large-scale emergencies. In the UK, commonly used shared protocols include CHALET and ETHANE while in the US, the Department of Homeland Security has called for nationwide implementation of
960-409: A practical guide and offers a seven-step approach. Robert Camp (who wrote one of the earliest books on benchmarking in 1989) developed a 12-stage approach to benchmarking. The 12 stage methodology consists of: The following is an example of a typical benchmarking methodology: The three main types of costs in benchmarking are: The cost of benchmarking can substantially be reduced through utilizing
1020-505: A primary emergency service, in which case they typically use the emergency lighting configuration used by their respective emergency service. Effective emergency service management requires agencies from many different services to work closely together and to have open lines of communication. Most services do, or should, have procedures and liaisons in place to ensure this, although absence of these can be severely detrimental to good working. There can sometimes be tension between services for
1080-435: A standard on 29 July 1991. It is now a valid emergency number throughout EU countries and in many other CEPT countries. It works in parallel with other local emergency numbers in about two out of three EU states. Southern California Telephone Co. began using 116 as an emergency line for Los Angeles , California in 1946. 119 is an emergency telephone number in countries like for example China, Japan and South Korea. 120
1140-445: A traveller visiting a foreign country does not have to know the local emergency numbers. The mobile phone and the SIM card have a preprogrammed list of emergency numbers. When the user tries to set up a call using an emergency number known by a GSM or 3G phone, the special emergency call setup takes place. The actual number is not even transmitted into the network, but the network redirects
1200-453: Is no access to the home network. Dialing a known emergency number like 112 forces the phone to try the call with any available network. On some networks, a GSM phone without a SIM card may be used to make emergency calls, and most GSM phones accept a larger list of emergency numbers without SIM card, such as 112 , 911 , 118 , 119 , 000 , 110 , 08 , and 999 . However, some GSM networks will not accept emergency calls from phones without
1260-585: Is the emergency telephone number for ambulance service in China. 122 is an emergency telephone number in several countries. For example, it is used for fire emergencies in Austria, for traffic emergencies in China, and for police emergencies in Egypt. Prior to 1969, Australia lacked a national number for emergency services; the police, fire and ambulance services possessed many phone numbers, one for each local unit. In 1961,
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#17328453931801320-413: Is the practice of comparing business processes and performance metrics to industry bests and best practices from other companies. Dimensions typically measured are quality, time and cost . Benchmarking is used to measure performance using a specific indicator (cost per unit of measure, productivity per unit of measure, cycle time of x per unit of measure or defects per unit of measure) resulting in
1380-784: The National Incident Management System (NIMS), of which the Incident Command System (ICS) is a part. Smart Emergency Response System (SERS) prototype was built in the SmartAmerica Challenge 2013–2014, a United States government initiative. SERS was created by a team of nine organizations. The project was featured at the White House in June 2014 and called an exemplary achievement by Todd Park (U.S. Chief Technology Officer). The SmartAmerica initiative challenges
1440-638: The 1970s. France now uses 112, the European emergency number, as well as 17 and 18 for police and fire brigade, specific to France. 110 is the emergency telephone number for the police in China, Japan, and Germany. The emergency number 111 was adopted in New Zealand in 1955 and was first implemented in Masterton and Carterton in September 1958. New Zealand telephones had their rotary dials numbered in reverse to
1500-478: The 1980s when the number 911 was adopted as the standard number across most of the country under the North American Numbering Plan . The implementation of 911 service in the US was a gradual and haphazard process. Because telephone service boundaries did not always exactly match governmental and other jurisdictional boundaries, a user might dial 911, only to discover that they had been connected to
1560-578: The 1980s with electronic or digital systems eliminated the problem of older switches that would not recognize 911. At this point, 911 service is available in most of North America, but there are still small, sparsely-populated, or remote areas (such as Nunavut and the Northwest Territories in Canada's Arctic ) that do not have it. Gradually, various problems were overcome; "smart" or " enhanced 911 " systems were developed that not only would display
1620-464: The U.S. wireless industry improved caller-location for the majority of such calls. The "heightened location accuracy," available to supporting networks and handsets, can find callers through nearby devices connected to Wi-Fi or Bluetooth that are logged with a specific location in a special emergency-services database. Mobile phones generate additional problems for emergency operators, as many phones will allow emergency numbers to be dialed even while
1680-460: The UK and most of the world, with the number 1 on New Zealand rotary phones in the same position as the number 9 on British rotary phones. Dialling 111 would be recognised by the British-built step-by-step exchanges then used as a 999 emergency call, which would route the call accordingly. The CEPT recommended the use of 112 in 1972. The European Union subsequently adopted the 112 number as
1740-478: The aim of increasing some aspect of performance. Benchmarking may be a one-off event, but is often treated as a continuous process in which organizations continually seek to improve their practices. In project management benchmarking can also support the selection, planning and delivery of projects. In the process of best practice benchmarking, management identifies the best firms in their industry, or in another industry where similar processes exist, and compares
1800-558: The appropriate help. In the case of multiple services being needed on a call, the most urgent need must be determined, with other services being called in as needed. Emergency dispatchers are trained to control the call in order to provide help in an appropriate manner; they can be assisted by computer aided call handling systems (CACH). The emergency dispatcher may find it necessary to give urgent advice in life-threatening situations. Some dispatchers have special training in telling people how to perform first aid or CPR . In many parts of
1860-452: The call, the line may still be held until the emergency service answers and releases the call. An emergency telephone number call may be answered by either a telephone operator or an emergency service dispatcher . The nature of the emergency ( police , fire , medical , coast guard ) is then determined. If the call has been answered by a telephone operator, they then connect the call to the appropriate emergency service, who then dispatches
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1920-400: The caller's number and address at the dispatch center but also could be configured so that 911 calls were automatically routed to the correct dispatch center, regardless of what central office the caller was served from. In the United States, most cities have E911 systems either in use, or in their emergency systems design plans. In France , many telephone exchanges were closed at night but it
1980-668: The comparison of technical products. This process is usually referred to as "technical benchmarking" or "product benchmarking". Its use is well-developed within the automotive industry ("automotive benchmarking"), where it is vital to design products that match precise user expectations, at minimal cost, by applying the best technologies available worldwide. Data is obtained by fully disassembling existing cars and their systems. Such analyses were initially carried out in-house by car makers and their suppliers. However, as these analyses are expensive, they are increasingly being outsourced to companies who specialize in this area. Outsourcing has enabled
2040-785: The concept of benchmarking and competitive analysis by allowing individuals to handle such large and complex amounts or strategies. Such tools support different types of benchmarking (see above) and can reduce the above costs significantly. The emerging technology of benchmarking engines automates the stage of going from data to noteworthy comparative insights, sometimes even expressing the insights in English sentences. Another approach to making comparisons involves using more aggregative cost or production information to identify strong and weak performing units. The two most common forms of quantitative analysis used in metric benchmarking are data envelopment analysis (DEA) and regression analysis . DEA estimates
2100-552: The cost level an efficient firm should be able to achieve in a particular market. In infrastructure regulation, DEA сan be used to reward companies/operators whose costs are near the efficient frontier with additional profits. Regression analysis estimates what the average firm should be able to achieve. With regression analysis, firms that performed better than average can be rewarded while firms that performed worse than average can be penalized. Such benchmarking studies are used to create yardstick comparisons, allowing outsiders to evaluate
2160-451: The design of U.S. central office (phone) switches, it was not practical to use the British emergency number 999 (as was briefly considered). What was up to that time unassigned area code 911 was chosen instead. The "1" as the second digit was key; it told the switching equipment that this was not a routine call. (At the time, when the second digit was "1" or "0" the equipment handled the call as
2220-529: The different emergency services; these often differ only by the last digit. In many countries, dialing either 112 (used in Europe and parts of Asia, Africa and South America) or 911 (used mostly in the Americas) will connect callers to emergency services. For individual countries, see the list of emergency telephone numbers . The emergency telephone number is a special case in the country's telephone number plan. In
2280-462: The emergency call to the local emergency desk. Most GSM mobile phones can dial emergency numbers even when the phone keyboard is locked, the phone is without a SIM card , emergency number is entered instead of the PIN or there is not a network signal (busy network). Most GSM mobile phones have 112 , 999 and 911 as pre-programmed emergency numbers that are always available. The SIM card issued by
2340-463: The exchange to attract an operator's attention. The emergency number 999 was adopted in Winnipeg , Manitoba , Canada in 1959 at the urging of Stephen Juba , mayor of Winnipeg at the time. The city changed the number to 911 in 1972, in order to be consistent with the newly adopted U.S. emergency number. Several other countries besides the UK have adopted 999 as their emergency number. Because of
2400-691: The future. AP reports that member states have agreed that either 911 or 112 should be designated as emergency phone numbers – 911 is currently used in North America, while 112 is standard across the EU and in many other countries worldwide. In January 2008, the Internet Engineering Task Force released a set of RFC documents pertaining to emergency calls in IP networks. Mobile phones can be used in countries with different emergency numbers. This means that
2460-424: The high-precision rifle and its cartridge, the marksman's accuracy became the bottleneck. With different qualities and specifications on rifles and ammunition, there grew a need to test both. The rifled weapon was fixed in a bench, making it possible to fire several identical shots at a target to measure the spread. In 2008, a comprehensive survey on benchmarking was commissioned by The Global Benchmarking Network,
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2520-409: The keypad is locked. Since mobile phones are typically carried in pockets and small bags, the keys can easily be depressed accidentally, leading to unintended calls . A system has been developed in the UK to connect calls where the caller is sent to an automated system, leaving more operators free to handle genuine emergency calls. As earlier telephone systems used loop disconnect dialing , attention
2580-422: The many internet resources that have sprung up over the last few years. These aim to capture benchmarks and best practices from organizations, business sectors and countries to make the benchmarking process much quicker and cheaper. The technique initially used to compare existing corporate strategies with a view to achieving the best possible performance in new situations (see above), has recently been extended to
2640-502: The number "9" on the dial in darkened, or smoke-filled, rooms, by locating and placing the first finger in the "0" and the second in the "9", then removing the first when actually dialling. Some people have reported accidentally dialing 112 by loop-disconnect for various technical reasons, including while working on extension telephone wiring, and point to this as a disadvantage of the 112 emergency number, which takes only four loop-disconnects to activate. Benchmarking Benchmarking
2700-542: The office of the Postmaster General (PMG) introduced the Triple Zero (000) number in major population centres and near the end of the 1980s extended its coverage to nationwide. The number Triple Zero (000) was chosen for several reasons: technically, it suited the dialing system for the most remote automatic exchanges, particularly outback Queensland. These communities used the digit 0 to select an automatic trunk line to
2760-546: The operator can contain additional country-specific emergency numbers that can be used even when roaming abroad. The GSM network can also update the list of well-known emergency numbers when the phone registers to it. Using an emergency number recognized by a GSM phone like 112 instead of another emergency number may be advantageous, since GSM phones and networks give special priority to emergency calls. A phone dialing an emergency service number not recognized by it may refuse to roam onto another network, leading to trouble if there
2820-446: The participants to build cyber-physical systems as a glimpse of the future to save lives, create jobs, foster businesses, and improve the economy. SERS primarily saves lives. The system provides the survivors and the emergency personnel with information to locate and assist each other during a disaster. SERS allows organization to submit help requests to a MATLAB-based mission center connecting first responders, apps, search-and-rescue dogs,
2880-417: The past, calls to the emergency telephone number were often routed over special dedicated circuits. Though with the advent of electronic exchanges these calls are now often mixed with ordinary telephone traffic, they still may be able to access circuits that other traffic cannot. Often the system is set up so that once a call is made to an emergency telephone number, it must be answered. Should the caller abandon
2940-442: The performance of operators in an industry. Advanced statistical techniques, including stochastic frontier analysis , have been used to identify high and weak performers in industries, including applications to schools, hospitals, water utilities, and electric utilities. One of the biggest challenges for metric benchmarking is the variety of metric definitions used among companies or divisions. Definitions may change over time within
3000-422: The recipient giving payment or holding suitable insurance or other surety for receiving the service. Primary emergency services are emergency services that provide basic emergency assistance and care. They can be summoned directly by the public. There are three primary emergency services and they are listed in the following order. Specialized emergency services are emergency services that are not considered one of
3060-500: The results and processes of those studied (the "targets") to one's own results and processes. In this way, they learn how well the targets perform and, more importantly, the business processes that explain why these firms are successful. According to National Council on Measurement in Education, benchmark assessments are short assessments used by teachers at various times throughout the school year to monitor student progress in some area of
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#17328453931803120-442: The same organization due to changes in leadership and priorities. The most useful comparisons can be made when metrics definitions are common between compared units and do not change so improvements can be changed. Social media is beginning to penetrate more and more into existing business processes. In this sense, benchmarking is no exception. Because of their inherent characteristics, it can even be argued that social media will have
3180-427: The school curriculum. These also are known as interim government. In 1994, one of the first technical journals named Benchmarking was published. The term benchmark , originates from the history of guns and ammunition, in regards to the same aim as for the business term: comparison and improved performance. The introduction of gunpowder arms replaced the bow and arrow from the archer, who now had to learn to handle
3240-800: The three primary emergency services. They can be provided by one of the primary emergency services (often as a division or unit) or by a separate governmental or private body. Specialized emergency services may typically be contacted and requested by the public, unless they are a division or unit of a primary emergency service. They may also often be requested by primary emergency services to handle certain emergencies or augment existing emergency services personnel. Some of these services may be location-specific and have jurisdiction over specific areas or situations, with little if any authority outside them. In some jurisdictions, specialized emergency services may be allowed to use emergency lights on their vehicles, often yellow or amber lights unless they are already part of
3300-508: The user dialed the full number for the Police or Fire Department. This system remained essentially unchanged throughout most of North America until the 1970s. The first emergency number system to be deployed anywhere in the world was in London on 30 June 1937 using the number 999, and this was later extended to cover the entire country. When 999 was dialed, a buzzer sounded and a red light flashed in
3360-408: The world, an emergency service can identify the telephone number that a call has been placed from. This is normally done using the system that the telephone company uses to bill calls, making the number visible even for users who have unlisted numbers or who block caller ID . Enhanced 911 and similar systems like E112 can provide the location of landline callers by looking up the physical address in
3420-521: The wrong dispatch center because they had telephone service from one location but lived within the boundaries of another jurisdiction. Electromechanical switching equipment still in use made it difficult to adapt to recognize 911, especially in small towns and rural areas where the call might have to be switched over a considerable distance. For this reason, there are still county sheriff departments that have toll-free "800" area code numbers. The rapid replacement of electromechanical switching systems in
3480-420: Was devoted to avoiding the number being dialed accidentally by errant interruptions of the circuits by making them involve long sequences of pulses, such as with the UK 999 emergency number. This meant that "111" could not be used: "111" dialing could accidentally take place when phone lines were in too close proximity to each other. Subscribers, as they were called then, were even given instructions on how to find
3540-487: Was frequently concern among users that the very personalized emergency service provided by manual operators would be lost. Because numbers were different for every exchange, callers either had to dial the operator or look up the telephone number. This problem was at least partially solved in Canada, the UK, and the US by dialing "0" for the local assistance operator in case of emergency, although faster service could be obtained if
3600-399: Was still possible to make emergency calls. An operator had to connect the emergency calls only. In 1913, an automatic system was set up. It made provision for calling the police by dialing 17 and the fire brigade by dialing 18. As more manual telephone exchanges were converted to dial operation, more and more subscribers had access to these special numbers. The service was not widespread until
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