9-1-1 Communications

The Los Altos Police Department Communications Center is part of the Police Services Division and serves as the Public Safety Answering Point (PSAP) for the City of Los Altos. Communications Officers are responsible for prioritizing and dispatching calls for service, monitoring and tracking field units, and ensuring the safety of officers in the field.

All calls originating in the City of Los Altos are answered by Los Altos Communications Officers. The Communications Center provides 24-hour answering of all emergency and non-emergency police, fire and medical calls. Calls received for fire and medical emergencies are transferred to the Santa Clara County Communications Center for dispatching of fire and emergency medical units.

Communications Officers
The Communications Unit is made up of five full-time Communications Officers and one Communications Supervisor. Staffing is augmented through additional part-time, per-diem employees. Depending on the time and day of the week, staffing levels in our center are between 1 – 2 people. Communications Officers work 10 – 12 hours a day. The Communications Center processes thousands of phone calls each year, including over 10,000 police calls for service. Our goal is to coordinate the City’s resources to best address the needs of the citizens of Los Altos. We are your first point of contact whether reporting an abandoned vehicle or a heart attack. We can direct you and your family to a wide variety of community services and agencies.

How to Reach Us
The easiest way to reach us, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, is by dialing the Police Department’s non-emergency number (650) 947-2770. If the situation is an immediate threat to life or property – medical emergency, fire or a crime in progress, always dial 911.

Translation/TDD Services
As a State funded 911 program, language interpretation services are made available through a third party provider. The Los Altos Police Department contracts with Language Line Services for both emergency and non-emergency translation needs. Language Line provides our 911 center with over 140 languages and dialects.
Additionally, all dispatch workstations are equipped with TDD/TTY detectors allowing Communications Officers to communicate with TDD’s from their workstations.

911 Education
• What is 911?
9-1-1 is the number to call for help in a police, fire or medical emergency.

• When to call 911
911 is dedicated to calls for emergency aid and crimes in progress such as imminent threat to life, bodily injury, or major property damage or loss. A home burglary in progress, person with a gun, traffic accident, fires or calls for paramedic services are all examples of emergencies. If you are unsure if something is an emergency, call 911.

When Reporting an Emergency:
• Give the location of the emergency. Locations must always be verified
• Remain calm and speak slowly and clearly while explaining the type of emergency you are reporting.
• The Communications Officer will ask you questions concerning the type of emergency you are reporting. The answers you provide will be relayed to responding emergency personnel. Therefore, stay on the line while the Communications Officer processes your call. You may need to provide additional information or receive instructions from the Communications Officer.
• The Communications Officer will request your name and location. You do not have to identify yourself when you are reporting a crime, unless you are the victim of the crime.

Calling 911 from a Cell Phone
In January 2006, our Department implemented the technology to receive wireless 911 calls from residents and visitors requesting emergency services from their cell phones within our city limits.

In the past, wireless 911 calls were received by the California Highway Patrol, whose operators re-directed emergency calls to the appropriate law enforcement agency, sometimes resulting in substantial delays. Communications Officers, who had no way of knowing where a cell call had been placed, had to rely solely upon information provided by the caller. This inability to track locations led the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to direct wireless carriers nationwide to develop a means to identify the location and phone number of wireless 911 callers.

This location verification system has some weaknesses as some older cell phones are not location-equipped and if the caller hangs up prematurely, the Communications Officer may be unable to approximate the location. In addition to outdated equipment, cell phone locations are not as specific as the addresses which are obtained from a hard wired line call. Finally, since cell sites often cross city lines and jurisdictions, callers may be directed to an agency other than the Los Altos Police Department. Callers are advised to always know and be able to communicate their location to an emergency operator.

In an emergency the public can also reach the Los Altos Police Department by calling (650) 947-2779 from their cell phone.

How You Can Help Us Help You
We understand that having to call 911 for any reason can be a confusing and sometimes frightening experience. A reality of our job is that most people who call us have been the victim of a crime or need emergency medical help. All of our Communications Officers receive months of specialized training and are ready to address your specific police, fire, and medical needs in a timely manner. There are also some specific things you and your family can do before and during your call that will insure the call is processed as quickly as possible:

1. Take a brief moment before you call to think about what you are reporting. If the crime is not occurring at the time of call, gather as much information about the incident as possible. When did it occur? Where did it occur? Do you know who may have committed the crime?

2. If the crime is occurring when you call, you will be asked additional specific questions by the Communications Officer, essentially becoming the eyes and ears for police officers who will be responding to the scene. While many questions may seem unimportant or redundant, most are highly necessary – such as information regarding drugs, alcohol, and weapons – information to ensure officer safety.

3. Another important aspect to keep in mind is our ability to multi-task during calls. If you are a victim of a violent, in-progress crime such as domestic violence or assault, for example, the call-taker speaking with you can also dispatch the officers to your location, simultaneously. It can often seem like the call-taker is delaying the dispatch of your call by asking you additional questions, when in fact the opposite is true. The faster we obtain suspect, weapon, and vehicle information from you and those involved in your situation, the better prepared the officers are when they arrive on scene. Again, your patience and understanding during these stressful calls is greatly appreciated.