It happened again tonight, like it happens every night. One-thirty in the morning, I get dispatched to a "911 unknown" call. This means that 911 was dialed from the residence with unknown circumstances. I turn onto the street, which is dark and many of the houses have trees and bushes covering up the front of the house. I make out the address on one house, and know the house should be up a few on the right. The next 3 houses don’t have numbers on them, and 1 is missing some of the numbers. So I now have a "911" call and it’s one of 3 houses. I knock on one door, and after about a minute, a man answers, obviously just out of bed. Wrong house. Luckily, I find the house on the second try, only to realize it was an accidental call. This was a waste of over 2-3 minutes trying to find the house. Driving slowly up the street, looking for the numbers, having to try to decide on which house to try, and going to the wrong house before finding the right one.
What if it was a choking baby call, or a rape in progress? What if a family member was having a heart attack? Would you want the police or medical help going to the wrong house? Wasting valuable time looking for an address that isn’t visible. If only one house on a street does not have the numbers displayed, it isn’t too bad; we can usually figure it out. But in most areas, a lot of houses don’t have visible numbers, have missing numbers, or have bushes or trees covering up the numbers.
This not only endangers you or your family in an emergency situation where seconds count, but it could endanger a police officer responding to help you in an emergency situation. Here’s an example:
It’s 2 a.m., and you hear glass breaking. You dial 911 and slowly get out of bed. Your husband is at work and the kids asleep. You go to check on the kids and suddenly you are confronted in the doorway by a large male holding a gun who orders you back into the bedroom. Now, do you really want a police officer wasting 1, 2, or even 5 minutes looking for your house when you are in a dangerous situation where a second feels like an hour?
The officer who got dispatched to your "911" call, turns onto your street and finds several houses without numbers. (Yours being one of them.) The sequence is too irregular to figure out which house is yours, so the officer knocks on a door. Not yours. The officer tries another house. Dogs bark, lights go on, but still not your house. The intruder hears the knocking next door, looks out a window, and sees an officer next door. The intruder sneaks out the back door and escapes even before the officer found your house. Or worse, the officer may contact the intruder as he leaves, unaware of the break in at your house. The officer could get shot or injured very easily responding to a "hot" call and wasting time to find the address.
Officers respond to a call in a tactical way, often parking down the street from a call and walking in to avoid detection, and to give the officer the advantage of the element of surprise. Without numbers on the house, an officer could be parking right in front of a house where there is a problem without even knowing it.
The same scenario as above, but the right way:
The same call, same bad guy with the gun. This time, the officer pulls onto the street and sees each house clearly marked with addresses. He knows your house is 2 up on the right. The officer wastes no time directing assisting units to the other side of the house, where they discover the broken window. The officers set up a perimeter and call into the house. The bad guy flees and is taken down at gunpoint the second he exits the house. The officers knew exactly which house to go to, and where to send assisting units without lighting up the whole block with spotlights looking for numbers, or wasting valuable time knocking on the wrong doors.
· If just one person, who reads this, clearly posts the address on their residence, it will make it much easier for police, fire, or medical personnel to find them when needed. It not only makes our jobs easier; it could save your life.
· Not your house? Waiting for the landlord to do it? Too expensive? Too complicated? Don’t know how to do it? NO EXCUSES!
· Whether it is your house or not, renting or buying, owner or roommate, even if it’s an apartment unit that isn’t visibly posted, do it yourself. It could mean the difference between life and death. There is nothing more frustrating to me than getting dispatched to a "hot" call, and having to run around, wasting time looking for the house.
Here is what you do:
· If there is no address on your house, put it on. Hardware stores offer a large variety of house numbers ranging from stick-on numbers for a few dollars, to fancy wood ones that can be stained or painted. The most popular I see are the plastic numbers you simply tack up using small nails or screws.
· If you have vegetation, trees, or bushes growing over the numbers, trim back the branches or move the numbers to a more visible location.
· Don’t put the numbers in a spot hard to see, like on a roof trim, or on a tree. We usually first look right next to the door or porch area, especially at night where the porch light will light up the numbers. Remember, the numbers should be clearly visible both day and night. A good spot is on a wall, door trim, or window trim that faces the street.
· A lot of builders are now installing lighted address boxes which mount on the front of your house, and are wired into your house’s 12 volt power supply, usually the doorbell wiring. These are by far the quickest to spot at night, since they are lighted. But they have two 12 volt bulbs inside which do occasionally burn out. If the bulbs burn out, please replace them. The bulbs only cost a buck or so. You can find the lighted address boxes at your local home improvement store.
· You don’t have to get too fancy, and please use color contrast. White numbers on a white house, or blue numbers on a blue house are hard to see in the day, and impossible to see at night. Dark numbers on a light colored house or light numbers on a dark house will work fine.
· Some fund-raising organizations offer to paint your address on the curbside in front of your house for a small donation. They usually paint a white background, and then spray or brush black numbers using stencils. These are simple to do yourself, and are very visible and effective.
· Use numbers that can be seen from the street. Little fancy numbers that look cute a few feet away may not be readable from the street.
Please help us to help you. The more visible your address is, the faster we find your house. Seconds can mean the difference between life and death. You know where you live, we don’t. The only way we can find you fast is by your address. If it’s not done, go do it today. It could be done for as little as a few dollars. Something so little can make such a big difference. The next time we come to your house in an emergency, we would like to hear you say, "How did you get here so fast?" rather than "What took you so long?"
