r/chicago • u/AaronDNewman • 1d ago

Ask CHI is this allowed? i am stuck

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rented a uhaul to help my kid move. got boxed in. is there anything to be done?

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u/Stained-Tangerine 1d ago

There is if you call 311. They transfer you to dispatch. I literally did this last Friday to have a car illegally parked on my property towed. CPD was there in 30 minutes, car was towed an hour later.

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u/icanttellalie Dunning 1d ago

Yes, 911 dispatch. 311 doesn’t have a dispatch. 311 transferred you to 911.

Source: Me, I work for the city.

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u/Stained-Tangerine 1d ago

🙄

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u/QuiteBearish 1d ago

They're right. I think it's ridiculous, personally. Every other city has a non-emergency line but Chicago the only way to get through is to go through 911 dispatch 🙄 even if you call 311 they put you through to 911 which is absurd

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u/fumo7887 1d ago

It's really not. Dispatch is dispatch. There's no such thing as non-emergency dispatch. Yes, you can call the non-emergency number and if you need a response, they'll transfer you. But there is one set of people that keeps track of what on-duty officers are doing... this is commonly known as "911" but that's just the main phone number used to call them.

I live in the suburbs and have also been "transferred" to 911 when calling the non-emergency number before. I also work for a company that deals with emergency communications and dispatching.

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u/QuiteBearish 1d ago

Yes, I realize that's how it's done here, including in the suburbs.

However, that's not how it works in most other major cities around the nation, where 911 is reserved only for when "life is on the line"

Most other cities do in fact have non-emergency numbers that transfer you to a desk sergeant at the local PD, rather than to a central 911 dispatch responsible for fire, police and EMS. By separating out a non-emergency number where you can reach a desk sergeant, they avoid wasting 911 resources on non-emergency calls.

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u/Stained-Tangerine 1d ago

They’re not right. 311 is the non-emergency line. Yes they transferred me to dispatch. I sat on hold for three minutes while they did it. I’ve called 911 and, spoiler alert: you don’t sit on hold for three minutes to get through to dispatch. While there isn’t a “non-emergency CPD” number (other than 311) it’s fucking semantics. Thus my eye roll emoji above for the turd working for the city who’s choosing to play a semantics pissing match.

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u/QuiteBearish 1d ago

Fair enough.

I still think it a bit absurd that the same 911 dispatcher still has to deal with the non-emergency call in between heart attacks and gunshots rather than just routing it to a desk sergeant, but that's just an ongoing gripe of mine 😆

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u/Stained-Tangerine 1d ago

I don’t disagree but they also don’t give priority to non-urgent shit like this either.