"The audit found 57 per cent of calls made to the centre between July 2018 and July 2021 were for non-emergencies.
About 18 per cent of those were hang ups, three per cent were pocket dials, 12 per cent were not for police or emergency services, 14 per cent were asking for advice, and 10 per cent were for non-emergencies without imminent or potential danger or injury."
Yeah, if call volumes are causing delays, and the majority of calls to 911 are not actual emergencies, then the problem isn’t squarely on staffing or burnout, but idiots who have no idea how 911 works.
That’s not to diminish the fact that nobody in an emergency should be waiting longer than the standard ~15 seconds, but the blame needs to be spread to those clogging up the lines, too.
I also wonder how many of those hang ups and pocket dials were the result of shoddy iphone implementation of the SOS feature, which has been known to dial 911 when someone is not in an emergency (i.e. like on an amusement park ride).
It’s not just iPhones. I’ve got a Samsung galaxy s21 and numerous times this summer my phone in my shorts pocket registered a touch through my clothes and pressed the emergency button, despite having SOS disabled. All it takes is to swipe up from the lock screen, or even double tap a notification while the screen is off to get the emergency button.
My son called 911 on his tablet a couple of months ago. It doesn’t even have a SIM card and it was locked, but he was playing make believe with the emergency call screen.
My wife’s Pixel 3a called 911 on its own somehow a couple years ago. Still don’t know how that one happened.
It happens. Just stay on the line if you do so they know they don’t need to call back or investigate.
From another article linked to the one above:
Yeah, if call volumes are causing delays, and the majority of calls to 911 are not actual emergencies, then the problem isn’t squarely on staffing or burnout, but idiots who have no idea how 911 works.
That’s not to diminish the fact that nobody in an emergency should be waiting longer than the standard ~15 seconds, but the blame needs to be spread to those clogging up the lines, too.
I also wonder how many of those hang ups and pocket dials were the result of shoddy iphone implementation of the SOS feature, which has been known to dial 911 when someone is not in an emergency (i.e. like on an amusement park ride).
It’s not just iPhones. I’ve got a Samsung galaxy s21 and numerous times this summer my phone in my shorts pocket registered a touch through my clothes and pressed the emergency button, despite having SOS disabled. All it takes is to swipe up from the lock screen, or even double tap a notification while the screen is off to get the emergency button.
I’ve got a Samsung phone, but have never had it dial 911 by accident.
My comment was in reference to several news reports last year about 911 problems related specifically to iphones.
But regardless of the phone, it sounds like a problem for the 911 operators! 😱
My son called 911 on his tablet a couple of months ago. It doesn’t even have a SIM card and it was locked, but he was playing make believe with the emergency call screen.
My wife’s Pixel 3a called 911 on its own somehow a couple years ago. Still don’t know how that one happened.
It happens. Just stay on the line if you do so they know they don’t need to call back or investigate.