311 goes West: San Jose tries to relieve its burdened 911 system

Pacific Bell has teamed up with the California government to make San Jose the nation's second city to implement 311, a non-emergency phone number.

San Jose residents can dial 311 to report abandoned vehicles, noise disturbances, thefts, vandalism and other crimes not in progress to the San Jose Police Department.

"Each day, a specific number of the 150 operators at the 911 center will be designated to handle non-emergency calls only, taking reports and passing them on to the proper officers," said a Pacific Bell spokesman.

The program is a one-year trial. Pacific Bell, a subsidiary of SBC, was chosen over AT&T and GTE to implement the program because its technology worked best with the 911 system the city already uses, said Jackie Nostaja, 311 project manager for the police department.

San Jose studied the program in Baltimore, which first implemented the non-emergency number in October 1996.

Nostaja noted some differences between the programs. Baltimore hired additional light duty police officers and trained them to take reports over the phone. San Jose is not hiring additional staff, and because the city implemented a Telephone Report Automation Center in 1995, additional training was not necessary. And, while Baltimore came up with a catchy slogan-"Call 311 when there's urgency but no emergency"-San Jose does not have a large advertising budget, Nostaja said.

"We're really relying on media coverage and the ability of our dispatchers to pass the word on to people," she said. "And we know an emergency means different things to different people."

San Jose's slogan is, "Remember, if in doubt, call 911."