MemeMachineGo!

(US-centric advice follows.)

With some exceptions depending on your exact location, dialing 911 on a cellphone will get you the local state police. If you’re on a major road, that might be the relevant organization. Most other places, it’s not. In an emergency, you don’t want to waste any time, and getting to the top of one 911 queue only to talk to someone who doesn’t recognize the names of local roads and needs to call another 911 system will waste time.

There is an alternative. Many police departments offer phone numbers that go to the same system as their 911 calls, so that you can call them directly from cellphones.

Where I am, most of the local police departments are in the 21st century and present these direct-dial numbers prominently on their websites’ front pages or on a ‘Contact Us’ page, and identify them as what to call from a cellphone. (A couple of towns didn’t have a direct-dial equivalent; I entered their general phone numbers anyway.) I label them all starting ‘911’ so they’re together in one block at the top of my contacts list.

It’ll only take a few minutes to look up the numbers for the police departments of the municipalities you frequent and enter them in your cellphone. Go ahead. I’ll wait. At least do your work and home.

It could be a matter of life or death.