Option #2 here is to just dial and leave the phone. I'm guessing a faster response time if a 9-1-1 call is received w/o caller on the other end.
Well, I'm a LEO, and I rather doubt that this is true anywhere...it sure isn't true where I work.
911 calls are categorized by what is said to the call-taker.
If you call in to report that someone hit-skipped your car at the mall yesterday, your call is turned into a report-needed run, and is dispatched when your local car is clear. You'll likely also be told that 911 is for
emergencies only.
If you call in to report a burglary in progress, that will get dispatched as an honest-to-goodness, balls-to-the-wall emergency run, and the whole precinct will be driving like idiots to get to your door.
Sidebar: people, nothing is as scary as an officer running lights-and-sirens...please, do get out of his way. Your insurance company will thank you.
You see, in such a situation the defensive-driving mindset that we have all been raised with is replaced with a much simpler philosophy: "Yeah, I can fit through there."
*anyway*
If you call in and leave the line open, the call taker will try to hear what is going on. If it sounds like an emergency, it will be dispatched as such. If, on the other hand, all they can hear is your wife snoring while you shuffle off to fight crime and suppress evil in your rec room, that will get dispatched as a 911-open line call. Those are a dime a dozen. In theory, they are a priority run. In actuality they will often hold for quite some time (5-10 minutes is not unusal if there are no cruisers clear when you call in) before they get aired. And then the cops have to get from wherever they are to your house...and they probably won't be doing it at Warp Factor 10 like they would if you had taken the time to yell that you had an intruder.
Just FYI.
Mike