MBTA bus 1402 in Davis displaying EMERGENCY / CALL POLICE

[flexagon]

On my way home tonight (10:30? 10:31?) a bus passed me at the corner of Elm and Russell. Everything on the bus looked okay -- bored passengers -- but where it would usually have its number and destination it was flashing EMERGENCY / CALL POLICE. Also its number, 1402.

Did anyone else see this? Was there a hijacked bus... or some driver pressing the wrong button, or a malfunction? After failing to get an answer at the Somerville PD and walking home, I called the MBTA's emergency number and got a very terse, on-the-ball person who took my late report and hopefully did something with it.

Surely it's not okay for a vehicle to drive around with signage like that if there's NOT a real emergency. Others who are more experienced with emergency response services have probably called 911 by now.

Comments

[benign-cremator.livejournal.com]

Don't know about the 1402, but when I stepped out of Davis Sq Theater at about the same time, there were 5 or 6 SPD cruisers outside of Redbones. They had blocked off Chester St, and had choked Elm down to one lane. No idea why, but they seemed serious about the reason.

[dcltdw]

The past two days, PD cruisers have been blocking streets so that crews can do snow removal. I have no idea if this is what you saw, though.

[benign-cremator.livejournal.com]

No, there was no work crew there, no one doing snow removal, only police cruisers and officers. All in front of Redbones.



Also a bit distressed that out of nearly 30 comments, mine was rare in that it added information, and the rest were noise. Not the Davis SQ LJ of old.

[surrealestate.livejournal.com]

I've never seen such a thing, but if I did, I would immediately call 911.

I wonder what was going on.

[ron_newman]

You called the Somerville police and nobody answered the phone?

[flexagon]

Yes. I had to search for the number. I called 1-617-625-1600 at 10:33 last night. The message said "If this is an emergency, dial 911"... I hesitated, listened to the menu, and chose 0 to try to speak to a real person. I let it ring for quite a while. Nobody answered.

I've learned a lesson from this: I was not prepared. I do think it makes more sense to call the MBTA than 911 in a situation like this where driver error or bus malfunction seemed so likely, but a) I didn't have that number in my phone (fixed now) and b) I should have been prepared to call either this or 911, not the PD, even though that's what the bus said to do.

I was tired and startled and tried to follow the directions too literally.

[smileycop.livejournal.com]

911 is the police. Well, it's police, fire, and EMS, but it's still the number you should have called. If the sign was flashing "EMERGENCY, CALL POLICE," then it makes total logical sense to call the police department's emergency number, 9-1-fucking-1. Use your brain.

[flexagon]

Yes, it's what I should have done, I agree completely. But your rudeness is uncalled for. I was tired and not at my best, and I bet I still did more than 99% of the other people on the road who saw the same bus. I don't deserve to be cursed out for that.

[kdsorceress.livejournal.com]

Whoa! Flexagon already said they were tired and startled and not necessarily as prepared as they could be. There is no reason to swear at them, or to make rude comments about using their brain.

[smileycop.livejournal.com]

Being tired and startled is no excuse for blatant stupidity. You don't need to be prepared to punch in a 3 digit number into your phone. A 7 year old would have known to call 911, because that's what they're taught in elementary school. Evidently, Flexagon is so brain dead, he/she needed to Google the police department's emergency number and still got it wrong. Frankly, I'm more upset at you for defending such reckless behavior that could have gotten somebody hurt had the situation been more grave.

moderator note

[ron_newman]

Although I agree with you that flexagon should have called 911 instead of doing what she did, I think you've now made your point and don't need to continue the insults.

RE: moderator note

[dcltdw]

Just one community member's opinion, but I would advocate for posts like smileycop's to be deleted and smileycop to be put on a warning list for banning.

RE: moderator note

[ron_newman]

We try to moderate with a light touch here. smileycop didn't break any of our officially stated rules, but he was unnecessarily rude.

(also, deleting his posts would make much of the resulting conversation hard to follow)

RE: moderator note

[surrealestate.livejournal.com]

Plus given how many people's non-posted reactions were just like smileycop's (or much harsher), I'm also inclined to let it stand as the token representative.

RE: moderator note

[flexagon]

Really? That's strange, given that I did take one of the two recommended options, 20 minutes late.

I'm disinclined to post to this community again. Only one person actually responded on the topic of having seen any disturbance on Wednesday night, and I've been quite harshly judged (apparently by a whole lot of people) for doing a good thing less than perfectly. Not a great experience.

For anyone who still cares about the original issue: there's been nothing in the news about a distressed MBTA bus.

Re: moderator note

[miss-chance.livejournal.com]

Hope you stick around, flexagon. I haven't seen smileycop-style rudeness here very often. usually the people like that are little flashes in the pan who flare up then go away back to reddit when people don't jump on their hate-band-wagon with them.

RE: moderator note

[flexagon]

(FWIW, though, I also moderate a large online group, and agree with the mods' decision to let the rudeness stand.)

[norwoodbridge.livejournal.com]

If flexagon (and the hundreds of other people who saw this bus) did the "not brain dead" thing in what was almost certainly a simple mistake, valuable dispatcher resources could be tied up and prevented from being as responsive as they could to real emergencies. As dispatchers and emergency response are a limited resource, we all need to use discretion when calling "9-1-fucking-1" make sure we have a reasonable chance of actually reporting something that actually might be an emergency.

I once walked by an empty car in a parking lot and noticed they had a sun visor on the dash that said "Emergency! Call Police." I had just ascertained that the car was empty, so either a) someone made a careless mistake, or b) someone had time enough to put up the distress signal before getting locked in the trunk or abducted. I chose to do nothing. Was that also brain dead? I've also, many times, seen someone leave a bag at their table at a restaurant and go to the restroom, possibly to climb out the window and desert their bag. I've overheard snatches of conversation where it appeared that someone was threatening or planning casual violence to some third party. Figure of speech, or material threat? I didn't call 9-1-fucking-1 on any of those instances either, and I wouldn't if I saw some random flyer instructing me to do so, or someone in a sandwich board declaring it is time for us all to call the cops. I guess this makes me reckless.

When did I call 9-1-fucking-1? When a neighbor in my apartment building had been robbed at gunpoint of their keys and wallet, and told me they were staying at a friend's house. I heard someone fumbling with keys at their door. Though there wasn't a sign telling me to call, I decided there was some chance they were being robbed by a guy with a gun. The police came screaming up, oops, it was the landlord. So I wasted some police resources, but with, as any smiley cop would cheerfully look for, probable cause.

Flexagon has already said that they could see nothing else out of the ordinary. Bored people, a bus where it was supposed to be, no speeding, nothing going on. You weren't there. Why would you throw stones at a person who was clearly exercising their best judgement, and actually going out of their way to do the right thing without causing any more trouble than necessary? Would it also have been right to call 9-1-1, just in case? I wouldn't condemn it, though I think calling the MBTA is way better. But what flexagon did was also responsible, and community-minded. You could find way better targets for your attacks.

[ron_newman]

At UniversalHub.com I've seen numerous instances of people calling the Boston non-emergency police number for things like noise reports, only to be told they should have called 911. I don't think that's a good policy, but it seems to be the one they have in Boston.

In this particular case, the driver most likely activated the MBTA bus sign specifically to get attention from passersby, in a manner that was not likely to be noticed by a suspect inside the bus. I'd always call 911 if I saw a bus with that sign and people inside, unless the sign specifically gave a different phone number to call.

[flexagon]

The sign actually did give a specific number to call, but it was alternating with "EMERGENCY", and it flashed and was gone too quickly for me to memorize it or write it down. It was not 911. Given that, I thought it was probably for a local police station.

Today, I think it's more likely that it was the MBTA emergency number.

If the MBTA wants to clarify their emergency signage, and wants people to call 911, maybe they should show "CALL 911" externally when warranted.

[xuth.livejournal.com]

Many cities have made 911 the timely but non-emergency police number and do not have an otherwise staffed 24x7 phone number. Or in the case of some cities like Pittsburgh where I now live, it is the only city wide number for calling the police. It is confusing to the many people who were taught that 911 is strictly for emergencies and to do otherwise incurs penalties and fines, but it is what it is (especially since the first words out of the operators mouth is "what is the nature of your emergency?").

[teko.livejournal.com]

Thank you. 911 is overused for non-life-threatening situations. Flexagon did the right thing in that situation. Cursing at them and insulting them for being community-minded is foolish and does not deserve time on this forum.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_ming/]

If you actually are a cop, as your username suggests, you're not doing a lot to engender trust or encourage cooperation, I have to say. If I, a concerned citizen and bystander who may not have a grasp on all the details of a situation but who clearly sees something awry, call 911, am I going to get an aggressive person with a gun showing up and yelling at me? Great.

[austein]

I saw a bus in Davis about two years ago showing a similar message with one exception: it listed the MBTA Police number. I was really thankful for it since I don't particularly trust 911 to get to the right place quickly from a cell phone. I wonder why they changed it/the bus last night had a different version.

[ukelele.livejournal.com]

911 will confirm your location as roughly the second thing they ask you, right after "what is the nature of your emergency". I called them from a cell phone in Somerville a few months ago and got near-instantaneous help at my location from the fire department, and a couple minutes later from EMS. (yes, everything turned out fine in the end. also, thank you, dispatch/fire/EMS!)

[flexagon]

As I just told ron_newman above, the sign actually did give a specific number to call, but it was alternating with "EMERGENCY", and it flashed and was gone too quickly for me to memorize it or write it down. It was not 911. It probably was the MBTA emergency number.

So the signage hasn't necessarily changed.

[miss-chance.livejournal.com]

It is very MBTA to have an important piece of information flash by too quickly to read. It's thematically in line with the PA systems that are incoherent.

[paradoox.livejournal.com]

911 is very good at dispatching to the correct police department. I've called it a couple of times from the road when I've seen breakdowns or accidents or badly malfunctioning lights. I've quickly gotten routed to the correct police department and at worst gotten from the correct department "yes, we know already, but THANK YOU, for calling". (my emphasis)

[austein]

Thanks. That's reassuring and I should probably just do it sometime so it doesn't feel like so much of an unknown

[ron_newman]

The MBTA website has a page about this. It says to call either 617-222-1212 (which should have been on the flashing sign) or 9-1-1.

[dcltdw]

In the moment, I have no idea what I'd do (probably mentally freeze and do nothing). I think calling 911 would be an appropriate response.

[theodosia.livejournal.com]

Also remember: 911 knows the MBTA police number for sure, so if appropriate they'd be able to get in touch immediately, faster than you could look up the number.

[ron_newman]

Nothing relevant in last week's Somerville police log, unfortunately.

[tiggrstaar.livejournal.com]

Just for reference a few weeks ago I was in ball square and saw a bus sitting at an intersection with this on the front. My first thought is that MBTA buses have a bad track record of displaying things accurately on the sign on the front. I wondered if it was something real or just MBTAness . My friend was about to call the police but then while I was pondering and she was finding her phone the sign changed to the route number. It's hard to say what was happening in your case but that would be my first guess. I think in the future I would probably call the police just in case.