911, What's Your Emergency?: The Promise and Peril of Crisis Response

A groundbreaking history and critique of a little-explored aspect of American law enforcement: the often deadly 911 emergency response system

The world knows George Floyd as the man whose murder launched a thousand protests. Less discussed is that his death was set in motion by a 911 call that needlessly dispatched the police. While 911 saves countless lives, it also creates devastating risks--almost always to people of color. In this important book full of original research, Rebecca Neusteter, the country's leading expert on emergency response, uncovers a shockingly unregulated system with deeply racist roots.

Although fire chiefs had called for a universal emergency hotline for years, it wasn't until 1967--when Newark, Watts, and Detroit exploded in race riots--that Congress finally moved to create a system, one designed to summon the police to put down civil unrest. Neusteter reveals that legacy of racial social control as it continues today, with armed police the default response to 911 calls, whether or not they are well-matched to the need at hand. The book covers all-too-frequent killings of unarmed mentally ill people as well as the "Karen" syndrome, in which white women call 911 to report Black people engaged in harmless activities--endangering their lives in the process.

In her final chapters, Neusteter highlights promising new models of emergency response and other changes needed to improve our 911 system to serve everyone, safely and equitably.