Editing Emergency telephone number (section)

=== 911 ===
{{Main|911 (emergency telephone number)|9-1-1 (Philippines)}}

Because of the design of US 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 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.<ref>{{cite magazine|first=Gary|last=Allen|title=History of 911|url=https://www.countyofunion.org/site/cpage.asp?cpage_id=180009766&sec_id=180003667|magazine=Dispatch Magazine|access-date=2019-11-04|archive-date=2018-09-23|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180923121122/https://www.countyofunion.org/site/cpage.asp?cpage_id=180009766&sec_id=180003667|url-status=dead}}</ref> 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 the 1980s when the number 911 was adopted as the standard number across most of the country under the [[North American Numbering Plan]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.lcdes.org/history/|title=THE HISTORY OF 911|website=Lebanon County Department of Emergency Services}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/first-911-emergency-call-is-placed-in-the-united-states|title=First 9‑1‑1 call is placed in the United States|website=HISTORY}}</ref>

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 the wrong dispatch center because they had telephone service from one location but lived within the boundaries of another jurisdiction.{{citation needed|date=March 2011}}

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.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.blackstonevalleytribune.com/pdf/CHA.2009.02.13.pdf:Charlton|title=Villager p.13|access-date=13 October 2014}}{{Dead link|date=September 2023 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref> For this reason, there are still{{when|date=September 2019}} county sheriff departments that have toll-free "800" area code numbers.{{Citation needed|date=March 2011}}

The rapid replacement of electromechanical switching systems in 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|Canada's]] [[Arctic]]) that do not have it.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FPsDAAAAMBAJ&q=small%2C+remote+town+that+does+not+have+911+service%3AAmerican&pg=PA58|title=Motorcyclist Association p.58|access-date=13 October 2014|last1=Assoc|first1=American Motorcyclist|date=June 2001}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|last1=Williams|first1=Ollie|title=Hold, please: Lack of money pauses plans for 911 service in N.W.T.|url=http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/north/911-service-nwt-1.3555051|website=CBC News|access-date=2 May 2016|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160430113541/http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/north/911-service-nwt-1.3555051|archive-date=30 April 2016}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|last1=Shanoff|first1=Alan|title=Money for nothing|url=http://www.torontosun.com/2015/08/29/money-for-nothing|newspaper=Toronto Sun|access-date=2 May 2016|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160804211742/http://www.torontosun.com/2015/08/29/money-for-nothing|archive-date=4 August 2016}}</ref>

====Enhanced 911====
Gradually, various problems were overcome; "smart" or "[[enhanced 911]]" systems were developed that not only would display 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.