As of Monday, the telephone number 911 will be in use for emergency situations in 16 different states. The number can be used to request the services of the police, civil defense, fire fighters and Red Cross, among others.
Public Security Committee Executive Secretary Álvaro Vizcaíno Zamora said that 911 will replace various emergency numbers such as 066 or 088.
In an interview he explained that during the implementation process, which will take six months, old numbers will remain in use along with 911 to meet all emergency calls from the public and ease the transition.
The number is currently in operation in Baja California, Coahuila, Colima, Chiapas, Chihuahua, Durango, Guanajuato, Morelos, Nayarit, Nuevo León, Oaxaca, Quintana Roo, Sonora, Tlaxcala, Puebla and Zacatecas. In the remaining states the 911 will begin operating on Jan. 9, 2017.
Vizcaíno Zamora made clear that the number should only be used if a life is at risk, and not for the protection of property.
Vizcaíno Zamora added that the Interior Secretariat (Segob) issued a national catalog of incidents in which 246 different types of emergencies are detailed. The catalog aims to create protocols to address situations in which individuals’ lives are at risk.
The catalog detailed 11 different protocols to provide first aid via telephone, which were compiled by the Rescue Squad and Emergency Medical Mexico City and have been validated by the Red Cross.
Vizcaíno Zamora also said that an agreement with the Red Cross and the National Institute of Women (Inmujeres) was made to ensure a gender perspective in emergency care.
Infrastructure that was already in existence is being used for the new phone number, which consists of 194 municipal or state emergency centers with 100,000 operators who were trained by the National Autonomous University of Mexico’s (UNAM) Psychology Department.