I could see the tone as both helpful and dangerous. Perhaps holding down the "send" key would enable the tone and dial 911, while merely pressing it for a moment would just dial 911. (As a solution)

This is the most retarded thing ever. How could anyone at Verizon think this is A Good Idea(tm)(R) ?

Weird... I distinctly remember dialing 911 a few years ago after being the first on the scene of a fatal car accident and don't remember my phone doing that and being with Verizon. Is this something new?

On most phones I have owned on Sprint, when you dial 911, it makes 3 short, low volume tones and the phone will then go into emergency mode. I wouldnt think it would ever be that loud.

I can just imagine millions of Verizon users testing out whether their phones make the audible alarm and then tying up emergency call centers nationwide once the word of this gets out.

@lalala1949: LOL, I was about to write pretty much the same thing.

Mine plays this odd triumphant jingle...

Odd.

Must be a Verizon thing. I've called 911 with T-Mobile and Cingular and the tone when it connects is different but no audible tone is heard.

Does anyone know which Verizon phones do this? Verizon's screwed things up by insisting their shitty interface be used on all of their phones regardless of the phone's capabilities, so it's very likely this affects a wide range of models. Whereas, if this were any other provider, it could be just a couple of models or maybe a brand of phone.

Have had to call 911 a few times with my various cell phones over the years, none of them did this. All on Alltel/GTE. Most of them Motorola.

This has to be the dumbest thing ever. This must be fixed and fast, and then widely publicized that it has been resolved.

The viral e-mails are certainly already on the way, and word of this will quickly spread. Even if they fix it today, I have no doubt that someone, somewhere, will end up dead because of it, either because the phone did make noise and tip off a criminal attacker, or because a user is afraid to dial 911 because of the noise, and will receive no help when it is urgently needed.

Way to go, Verizon Wireless, it's a lose-lose!

Now might be a good time to point out that 911 is reserved for actual emergencies. If you are in a safe place and not in immediate danger, please call your local non-emergency line. If, as in a case like this, it appears your house may have been broken into, DO NOT go on to the property; instead, go to a neighbor's house and call the police from there.

But I do agree that a 911 alarm on your phone is patently stupid.

911 on cell phones is apparently universally stupid. When I tried to dial 911 on my cell phone (LG phone, Telus network, I'm in Canada), it went into 'emergency mode' but didn't actually, you know, *dial* 911. I had to dial it again. Apparently this is to keep me from dialing 911 by accident.

Which was inconvenient as hell given I was driving down the freeway and calling to report a man drunkenly stumbling into traffic (on a 10 lane divided highway, so seriously in danger of killing himself or causing a major accident). I wasn't *looking* at my phone, I was trying to drive, so it took me a minute to realize that there was a problem and then try and figure out what to do about it.

Now, imagine I was reporting my own emergency instead of someone else's. I'm hurt and bleeding and I pick up the phone to dial 911, and it doesn't work, and now I have to try and figure out how to make it work (under conditions that are a lot more stressful than just 'am driving quite quickly on a busy highway and shit, I just missed my exit'). I'm sure it's important to keep 911 from getting accidental calls, but it seems like they'd probably be better off making sure people could call 911 in the normal way when they need to.

The tone our customer experienced is our interpretation of Section 255 of the Telecommunications Act calling for a provider of telecommunications service to offer service that is accessible and usable by individuals with disabilities.

All in favor of bullshit, say "I".

@Papa Midnight: Aye.

I don't even get how this could possibly be an explanation. Let's see: a loud noise will help who, exactly? The visually impaired? Nope, they don't need a noise (unless you're one of the idiots who talk louder around the blind). The hearing impaired? Sure, make it even harder for them to hear the 911 operator because now they have to contend with the loud alarm. People in wheelchairs? No, now we're just getting silly.

Oh, wait, I get it. It's for the criminals who may be hearing impaired! Why make them listen for the weeping and gnashing of a hiding victim? Give them a nice, loud beacon to hunt down their prey. Got it.

My brand new Verizon Samsung sch-u740 doesn't make loud beeps or an audible alarm. It just makes three little tones and goes into emergency mode.

Yeah I have sprint, It does go to "emergency mode' when you dial 911,

Mine did that, Then kept saying "call failed" "call failed" when there was someone jacking a car on our street, Needless to say when i let sprint know, They finally agreed to swap me out with a different phone.

How long before someone gets seriously injured by a criminal who finds them because of this crap, and Verizon gets sued for negligence?

For chrissake, did this phone get even a shred of scrutiny at Verizon headquarters before rolling out of the Chinese factories? Or is the Verizon bureaucracy made up of a bunch of yes-men who rallied behind this "feature"? Everyone I've talked to says this is a really stupid and dangerous feature, and I myself have heard 911 calls on TV placed from someone hiding in the house out of fear for their life.

I recently called 911 on a Verizon Chocolate phone, and it didn't make a loud tone immediately, but it went in to 'emergency' mode, and then sent me a confirmation text. When I received the text, the phone buzzed as it would normally for a text message.

An intruder in my house won't hear a tone going off on my phone...he won't even hear me cock a shotgun...That's because it's already loaded to the max, just needs a safety to be turned off. I don't have kids in my house, so YMMV.

Oh, and I have a T-Mobile Sidekick 3, and it does not have "emergency mode", nor have I heard tones when I had to call the police regarding an accident. So I won't even have a delay when I call for the corner's office to come pick up the body (what, you thought I would leave a living person who could sue me?)

I called 911 with my Verizon phone a couple months ago, no tone that I noticed. The reason I was calling 911 was I saw flares coming up from the water somewhere under San Francisco Bay Bridge near Yerba Buena Island. I called right at the point. After being on hold for something like 15 minutes (literally, it was rush hour and I was at the bottom of the 9th street off-ramp in SF when someone finally answered!) and after reporting what I saw, was put on hold again, then told that there was a movie crew on the island using flares as part of their filming. Imagine. Good thing no one anywhere near there in SF Bay that day actually needed help and expected anyone to pay attention to any flares! 15 minutes on hold with 911! Good thing no one actually needed help...

I too own a GzOne phone, and besides the fact that it's a CASIO phone, and can not do 24 hour time, it does make a siren like noise when you dial 911. Recently, I had a 8 point buck smash into the side of my car. Since I didn't know what town I was in(wasn't sure where the borders were), I called 911 just in case the deer was still alive, and needed to be put down. I dialed, and along with the noise, it went into "emergency mode". I got on with the 911 operator, and after explaining what had happened, got into at least a 2 minute discussion about where I was. Now the incident happened here: Here

There are not many roads around where I was. I know the road I was on, just didn't know the name of it, or what town I was in. I described it as the main road that cuts through the local state park. In the end, I had to give her three landmarks to figure out the road name, and then walk to a mailbox to get a address. Then, the stupid phone would not go out of "emergency mode" until I specifically made it exit, so I could call my parents. I find it amazing that since I have it set for 911 location, I apparently couldn't be located. I swear the operator was like surfing google maps to get the road name. Why do I pay for this amazing feature that could save my life, and instead have to almost pull out a sextant, compass, and signal flags to get help where I need it.

@timmus: You think that's bad? On this Casio phone, which is marketed as water, dust, and impact resistant, you can't even get 24 hour time. You would think the sort of people who might use this phone might use 24 hour time. Nor does the phone recognize numbers if you put a 1 in front of it. If I have the number in the contacts as 1-xxx-xxx-xxxx, if that person calls, it will just give me the #. Add on to that that if you check the phone status, it lists all of your "missded" calls. Then tack on that it can not figure how to capitalize a letter after a period to start a sentence. My moto e815 was an amazing phone, and if the bluetooth hadn't died on it, I would still be using it. Verizon is so dumb for putting on their "better" OS on these phones just so their "techs" don;t have to think so hard.

(making note to never ever buy Verizon phone)

They be laughin' at ya while you're crawlin' on your knees
And to the strength so go the length
Thinkin' you are first when you really are tenth
You better wake up and smell the real flavor
Cause 911 is a fake life saver

So get up, get, get get down
911 is a joke in yo town
Get up, get, get, get down
Late 911 wears the late crown

Ow, ow 911 is a joke

one more reason to not use Verizon. Overpriced and under performing.

However, I can see completely how this made it onto a handset. Some idiot in R&D thinking that the only reason why you would call 911 is if you needed saving. Totally ignoring the other reasons like being attacked by neer'do wells.

@Miss Anthropy:

Sometimes you have to call 911, even if it isn't an emergency:

I live in NYC, and a few years some jerk sideswiped my parked car in the middle of the night. No one was hurt I assume, but my car was a little beat up. I had full coverage so it was no biggie, but they still made me call 911 in order to make a police report to give to my insurance company.

I already felt embarrassed enough calling 911 in the big city about a little fender bender, 'cause I know cops probably have something more important to be doing. But to have a screaming phone on top of that? No thanks.

@casualweaponry: 311 always redirects me to 911 for things i consider non-emergencies.

@chili_dog: Indeed. Chalk this up as reason #729 to skip Verizon as a cell carrier.

I must admit, however, that I have a vzw evdo card. Expensive? Definitely, however, with my employer's discount on the monthly access, the bill is $48/mo, which in turn gets expensed, etc...

For evdo, they're a decent carrier, though their support staff is utterly useless. Right after I got the card, I called them because the card wasn't properly updating its PRL (preferred roaming list). After 3 days of so-called "Senior Technicians" banging their skulls against the desk, I insisted they swap the card. Plug in the new card, run the activation wizard (for the 50th or so time, 49 of which were on the original card), and surprise! It works.

@casualweaponry: At least your precinct is still willing to file police reports. A few months ago 10+ cars were broken into in my neighborhood and when I called the cops to report it I was told they don't handle those kinds of things and instead to call my insurance (even though it wasn't my car.) It took 30+ calls over the course of 10 mins to finally get them to send an officer down.

@inelegy: Ah, Public Enemy nostalgia...

And wouldn't a loud alarm also hinder the actual call??

@JKinNYC: Perhaps, but you should always call 311 for non-emergencies. If it does redirect you, priority is given to the main 911 line.

@casualweaponry: WHAT?!? Whoever "they" are, "they" need to be flogged.

I've got the non-emergency numbers for our city's police and fire departments. Unless someone's life is in immediate danger, one should not ever call 911.

Perhaps if more people avoided calling 911 unless a life was endangered, people like rich815 might not sit on hold for fifteen blasted minutes.

The 911 phone alarm reminds me of a convenience store worker here was shot & killed - because when he activated the "silent" alarm when the robbers left it was NOT silent - they immediately came right back in and shot him. Family sued the alarm company and won....but of course in this situation there are no winners...

I guess Verizon must work differently in other places, Where I am at it works fine. I have 5 Verizon phones and all work very well. Mine does not beep on 911 calls. As far as the 911 service, it works well where I am at, it still does not locate people because the govt. doesn't mandate it to, and they would want more money to do that. The issue has been tried to get a tax passed to finance the dispatch centers to be able to do the location, but gets voted down by taxpayers, so we are partially to blame. Many people are switching to cell phones for the all purpose phone, but they need to keep this in mind that their location will not be sent. Don't forget to *228 often.

There's a logical reason for the siren noise for a 911 call. If the dialer is having a medical emergency and goes unconscious paramedics have a chance of locating the victim with the siren going off.

But like decent ideas it fails in that it can't be canceled before making the 911 call. It's a little like those always on headlights. Yes. They reduce accidents but give the car owner his due and allow him to turn those suckers off when necessary -- drive-thru light displays, parking on lover's lane on cold nights, etc.

I did call 311, and the local precinct, and they both directed me to call 911.

I was sooooo apologetic on the phone it wasn't even funny; I felt really bad at the time, but the cops who responded said it was proper procedure at the time.

I was a 9-1-1 dispatcher for a few years...I never minded the non emergency people who would say "its not an emergency I didn't have the other number" its the asshat calling 9-1-1 and demanding we send a cop over to make their daughter do her homework.

(yes, it happened, and yes, they got a cop, in fact, they got the shift commander...to explain to the FATHER what 9-1-1 was for)

My all time favorite has to be the woman who called to report that her roomate stole her stash of crack and she wanted a report. She also got an officer :)

Two things...

1. My mother used to have an LG phone on AT&T Wireless (not AT&T Mobility or whatever its called now) and if you dialed 911 it would go into "Emergency Mode" and then would play a loud siren and cause the phones to flash red. Very, very annoying if you are trying to report something without someone else knowing.

2. My old phone on AT&T Wireless/Cingular had a horrible problem with connecting calls(About 1/8 calls went through) and also enjoyed dropping calls right after they connected, needless to say the last time I used that phone I was trying to call 911 because I saw someone being attacked, wonderfully I only had to dial 911 eleven times to get through to an operator where the phone promptly hung up on them. The operator called me back and I was able to convey my message to them. The phone then went into an emergency mode and refused to go out of it for another hour. Awesome.

@Miss Anthropy:

Except that's not always true.

If you dial the 'non emergency' phone number for the Carpinteria Police department (which, fwiw, is actually outsourced to Santa Barbara County) you will get a message that says "if it is after hours, please call 911". So, if you want to talk to a cop, emergency or not, in Carpinteria and other Santa Barbara County communities, you dial 911 emergency or not.

@quail:
That was exactly the point I was going to make. I see the use for this, but it should be something you can select to have when you call, or perhaps the 911 operator can activate it as necessary.

An automatic alarm is certainly dangerous, and Verizon should be penalized for putting people at risk like this. Any 911 feature should go through government regulation, or at least must be certified, I think.

You know, I'm not thrilled that this will handily give away your location to anyone you might be trying to escape while calling for help. But even worse...what if your someplace, need help, try to dial 911 and this starts up? Can it be *stopped*? If you can;t charge your phone handily, and can't get a signal the first try, this would possibly drain the battery very quickly running a loud alarm over the speaker. Then you die.

@Jacquilynne: When we had to dial 911 last year, an LG 4600 on telus, it dialed right away. If i was you, i'd phone telus and raise holy hell.

I find it somewhat shocking that many of those who have posted have actually used 911. It might just be a product of my upbringing, but I always thought 911 was for life-threatening emergencies.

@stevebmd: Because none of these posters have been through life-threatening emergencies?

@pengie: Thank you for assuming I didn't accidentally inflict myself with a severe glass cut that most certainly DID require emergency help. Why don't you just shut up and not make stupid assumptions?

This is so absurd. My friend was robbed at gunpoint last summer while her and her 3 friends were hanging out on her porch. She managed to grab the phone and escape while the robber was forcing her friends to lay face down in the grass and empty their pockets. She had to hide under an SUV and call 911. Had her phone made any sort of loud noise, she would have been dead.

@Buran: Whoops Buran, attacking the wrong poster there. Pretty brutally, too.

@stevebmd: Let's examine each of my 911 calls:
- man in the back of my taxi beating his girlfriend
- fire on the mountain
- fire on the street corner
- car fire on the side of the freeway (two of those)
- father cut off the tip of his finger and then fainted (shock)
- father passed out in a way which looked like stroke (eyes open, unresponsive)

Pray tell: which of these was not a life-threatening emergency?

@quail: The phone doesn't make a continuous siren noise, so it has NO impact on helping paramedics find you should you go unconscious. It makes the noise when you dial. The person in the article could have been found out when they made the initial call, and then again with the second call. It is a completely stupid to have a noise play over the main speaker. If they could perhaps limit it to the earpiece, so that you could hear it within arms length, then it would be better. When mine did it, it kind of scared me.