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.
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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.