About Us

Secure the Call is a charity with a single mission; to collect and convert as many old cell phones as possible into 911 emergency access phones. This is done on a national basis, with collections and distributions going on in most states.

Across the country there are innumerable law enforcement agencies, domestic violence departments and senior citizen centers that collect and redistributes old phones to those in need. But the problem experienced by every one of these groups is the same; process! Donated phones come in a mass of tangled wires and loose parts. You can’t simply hand out a phone that was just turned in. Work has to be done before the phone is ready to be used as a 911 emergency only phone. It has to be tested, cleaned, cleared of all old numbers programmed for 911, retested, then prepared for distribution. All this takes time and effort and can be discouraging. It marks the death of many programs, but it doesn’t have to be that way.

We collect phones in most states through a variety of sponsors that display our collection barrels and work with us to keep phones coming into our Takoma Park, MD headquarters. Phones are sorted and tested. Suitable phones are purged of all personal information and are further processed for use as 911 phones. Phones found unsuitable—everything from “doesn’t work” to “way too complicated”—are responsibly scrapped or sold to support the program. The result is a consistent, low cost supply of reliable phones prepared to summon 911 emergency services.

We’re the “middle-man” in the process. We have sponsors that collect phones in the special barrels we supply. We have a growing network of Community Partners—law enforcement agencies, senior citizens centers and domestic violence shelters—in forty nine states that  distribute the phones to those in need in 49 states.

We manage the entire process and the result is free 911-only phones to enable those that are in need and feeling vulnerable and isolated to know they can secure emergency services with the push of a button.

Secure the Call began as a loose confederation of several organizations in several states with similar objectives. In 2003, Secure the Call—CA was incorporated and later achieved IRS certification as a 501(c)(3) non-profit corporation. While that was a California corporation and we are headquartered in Maryland, that is the surviving organization that now does business simply as “Secure the Call”.

Most of our work is done by volunteers. Please take the time to visit the VOLUNTEER section of our site. We would really appreciate your help.