In order to provide the best service to the public and safe guard the responding Police, Fire and Medical units, dispatchers are trained to first determine whether the caller is reporting an Emergency or Non-Emergency type of situation. To accomplish this, dispatchers will ask a series of questions and obtain certain essential information. These questions are important. The answers to these questions will greatly assist the police officers in the performance of their duties and do not delay response time.

The following information is needed for each call for service:

• What type of incident are you reporting?

• When did the incident occur?

• Where did the incident occur?

• Who is reporting the incident?

• Description of the person(s) involved

• Description of any vehicles involved

• Are there any weapons involved

You may be asked to stay on the phone with the dispatcher so they can relay any additional information to the officers responding to the incident location. The most important thing is that you have to try to remain calm.