Resources being tied up because of accidental 911 calls
Posted Jul 17, 2019 4:33 pm.
Last Updated Jul 18, 2019 4:58 am.
CALGARY (660 NEWS) — Calgarians are being reminded to be careful when dialing phone numbers, as accidental 911 calls are an issue.
On Wednesday morning, Calgary police tweeted that there were three accidental calls made within five minutes of each other, all in the downtown core.
In the last 5 minutes we have had 3 accidental 911 calls in downtown. Please be careful when dialing out from your business, if possible change your phone system so you don’t have to hit 9 to dial out. If you do dial by accident, please stay on the line. #YYC pic.twitter.com/zkzgdnSteT
— Sergeant Chris Martin (@CPSSgtMartin) July 17, 2019
Then later in the day, police had to respond to another call from a downtown business.
Most phone systems in businesses need to dial 9 first before getting an outside line, and this is causing some problems.
“Be very careful when you’re accessing the dial 9 feature,” said Calgary 911 Commander Doug Odney. “If you accidentally dial 911 and you come through to us, stay on the phone, answer our questions and do not hang up. Otherwise, we have to respond with the Calgary Police Service.”
It would be very difficult to change the number we call for emergency services, but a possible solution could lie in the phones themselves.
“Newer phone systems now are looking at this problem and they can be programmed differently so that an outside line, for instance, can be accessed with dialing 7, and that prevents or reduces some of the accidental calls. But we still have challenges with people getting outside lines or trying to dial overseas,” added Odney.
Odney said these mistaken calls can tie up resources, and usually police will respond anyway just to be absolutely sure there is no risk.
It is also a frequent issue every single day.
“We can get about 300 accidental 911 calls or hang-ups, and so that’s taxing our system,” said Odney. “But calls to businesses can be as much as 15 to 20 per day so that sometimes requires a police response and we know it is an erroneous call, and it ties up resources.”
