Jackson County Seeing Uptick in Misdialed, Accidental and Hang Up 911 Calls
Saturday, August 8th, 2020 -- 10:05 AM
-The Jackson County Sheriff’s Department has been seeing an uptick in misdialed, accidental and hang up 911 calls for 2020.According to Jackson County Sheriff Duane Waldera, “The Communication Center has been receiving an increased amount of misdialed, accidental and hang-up 911 calls. Since January 1st, 2020, we have recorded 849 hang-up 911 calls compared to 571 hang-up calls received during the same time frame in 2019. Cellphone and smart watch devices can misdial or initiate 911 calls without the owner’s knowledge. Many older wireless phones are equipped with a pre-activated 911 auto-dial feature, which can lead to accidental dialing of 911. It may not seem like much of an issue, but accidental 911 calls can cause public safety personnel and resources to be diverted from real emergencies. You can help reduce accidental 911 calls by locking your keypad. You may also consider turning off the 911 auto-dial feature if your phone has one. Check your device settings, user manual or the manufacturer’s website to learn how. What should you do if you misdial or accidentally call 911?”
“Please don’t hang up! Stay on the line until we are able to verify what happened so we can better assess the situation. Don’t be surprised when our dispatcher asks you a series of questions. This is necessary to determine if there is an actual emergency or not. If you don’t stay on the call or the call is some how dropped with little or no communication with the 911 center, the dispatcher will attempt to call you back to verify if there is in fact an emergency. Your cooperation is needed even if you did not intend to call 911. The 911 emergency line is a very important public safety service we provide our community. It is imperative that we work together to reduce the accidental 911 calls so our Communication Center and our law enforcement officers can concentrate on the real emergencies.”
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