Why do you think People Call 911?

Bet you got the answer wrong. It turns out that only one out of four 911 calls has to do with crime in progress.

The rest deal with medical emergencies, noise complaints, overdoses, traffic violations, domestic disturbances—"scenarios which may be better handled by nonpolice public health and safety professionals,” Rebecca Neusteter, executive director of the University of Chicago Health Lab, told us in an interview that was featured in Route Fifty. You can find it here.

As Neusteter told us, ”We’re bringing people together to have a public conversation about how we transform 911 to develop a safe, supportive, community-driven emergency response system that is prepared to respond to a variety of scenarios in tailored ways and prioritizes health and safety. Transform911 is taking a comprehensive look at the 911 system, nationwide, gathering feedback from experts and community members, and reviewing research to develop evidence-based recommendations for state, local and federal policymakers to drive change."

While the 911 reform initiative is still in an early stage of development, Transform 911 has begun to provide links to a wide variety of interesting approaches across the country through an interactive map on its website. "We’ll be continually adding to this site and are encouraging people to share things we may have missed and make corrections or additions to the data we’re curating," Neusteter said.