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Never call the cops. Police due two things: apply force and file paperwork. If you have a medical or person problem, the police are not who to call. Sadly, that meand you can't call 911 either, you have to find the phone number for MEDICAL support.

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so 911 is not police, fire or ambulance in the US?

what do you ring if you need firefighters or a doctor?

911 is police, fire, or ambulance. But which combination shows up is decided by the dispatcher, not the caller, so you can't call 911 if you want to be sure that police won't respond.

It's all of those things, but since we have an excess of police and not of those other public servants it's typically the cops who arrive first. Even the cops who wouldn't interfere with paramedics at work are likely to harass people who need paramedics in their absence.

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