The same way you would find out how to call literally any place that you don’t currently know the number for.
What world do you live in where you need to make a non emergency call to the local police, but can’t just google “PLACE NAME police non emergency phone”?
Most people don’t know the police non emergency line for where they DO live, so you can safely just use the same procedure you use at home for phone number discovery when you are away from home. If you don’t have that dialed in, google can help you there too. It’s a fantastic place to learn all sorts of basic life skills.
It's not that simple. When you're away from home, how do you know the exact jurisdiction to lookup? And if it's not a police related matter, what non-emergency phone would you even look up? Plenty of metro areas have a bunch of interlocking municipalities, or if you're out in a rural area it can be hard to know which township is the right one. Prior to finding out about 311 (which might not be right?), I'd have no idea.
It really is that simple. I google local phone numbers while traveling all the time. Sometimes I have a problem where I’m not sure who can even help solve a problem, and google can help there too. I just googled “what to do if there is a branch on a power line” and google told me what signs would require a 911 call and also gave me the phone number for the correct utility in my current location.
It’s not an emergency, take your time and figure it out since timeliness is not extremely important. Google exists, phone books exist. You also don’t have to get it right on the first call, you can call the wrong people and they might know the right people to call. In fact, that happened to me when the water main broke on a Sunday near my house. I called the fire department non emergency line and they said to call the water department. I called the city water department, but they said I was in an area handled by the county. I called the county water department and they sent someone out. The first two calls cost me less than 5 minutes, and the people I spoke to at the wrong agencies were kind and helpful.
When I’m away from home, it really isn’t any different. I just change the name from “(town where I live) police non emergency line” to “(place I currently am) non emergency line” when I google things. Alternatively, turn on location services on your phone and you don’t have to put the place, google will figure it out for you.
Comments
Please don’t tie up emergency dispatchers by using them like a receptionist.
You can just google the number.
How do you know what number to even Google if it's not where you immediately live?
The same way you would find out how to call literally any place that you don’t currently know the number for.
What world do you live in where you need to make a non emergency call to the local police, but can’t just google “PLACE NAME police non emergency phone”?
Most people don’t know the police non emergency line for where they DO live, so you can safely just use the same procedure you use at home for phone number discovery when you are away from home. If you don’t have that dialed in, google can help you there too. It’s a fantastic place to learn all sorts of basic life skills.
It's not that simple. When you're away from home, how do you know the exact jurisdiction to lookup? And if it's not a police related matter, what non-emergency phone would you even look up? Plenty of metro areas have a bunch of interlocking municipalities, or if you're out in a rural area it can be hard to know which township is the right one. Prior to finding out about 311 (which might not be right?), I'd have no idea.
It really is that simple. I google local phone numbers while traveling all the time. Sometimes I have a problem where I’m not sure who can even help solve a problem, and google can help there too. I just googled “what to do if there is a branch on a power line” and google told me what signs would require a 911 call and also gave me the phone number for the correct utility in my current location.
It’s not an emergency, take your time and figure it out since timeliness is not extremely important. Google exists, phone books exist. You also don’t have to get it right on the first call, you can call the wrong people and they might know the right people to call. In fact, that happened to me when the water main broke on a Sunday near my house. I called the fire department non emergency line and they said to call the water department. I called the city water department, but they said I was in an area handled by the county. I called the county water department and they sent someone out. The first two calls cost me less than 5 minutes, and the people I spoke to at the wrong agencies were kind and helpful.
When I’m away from home, it really isn’t any different. I just change the name from “(town where I live) police non emergency line” to “(place I currently am) non emergency line” when I google things. Alternatively, turn on location services on your phone and you don’t have to put the place, google will figure it out for you.
It's the same people as non emergency line
Not everywhere. And in the places that is true, 911 gets priority in the queue.
If it’s not an emergency, there is no reason to call 911.