Estimated read time: Less than a minute
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexico is finally getting a single, nationwide emergency number like the U.S. has, and the number is 911.
In Mexico's previous system, people often reported police emergencies to one number, and medical or fire emergencies to another.
And the public has long distrusted emergency numbers because authorities frequently fail to come when called. In northern Mexico, the army launched a crime-report number called "We do show up."
Trust hasn't been helped by reports that some dispatchers tipped criminals off to call-in complaints.
The government apparently seeks to imitate the perceived reliability of the U.S. number.
The gradual change was completed Monday, but not much public outreach was done.
The newspaper Reforma reported in a headline "911 starts up, and nobody knows it!"
Copyright © The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
