Guelph police are encouraging the community to ‘stay on the line’ after seeing a sharp increase in accidental 911 calls.
Last month, police received 2,821 accidental 911 calls, which is nearly 100 calls a day, and more than double this time last year.
According to media relations coordinator Scott Tracey, phone software is largely to blame for the increase.
“There have been a number of software updates in the last few months which make it easier for cell phones to call 911. Which is a good thing if you need it, but unfortunately, we’re seeing more than double the number of accidental calls.”
One such update includes pressing the volume button repeatedly to access 911. This can result in accidentally calling 911 when your phone is “jostling around in a cup holder… or in a purse or in a pocket,” he said.
Accidental 911 calls continue to increase. We received approximately 100 accidental 911 calls a day last month. If you accidentally call 911 STAY ON THE LINE; our 911 operators must exhaust every effort to contact you until you pick up to ensure your safety. #guelph #guelphpolice pic.twitter.com/LNAqEVw5RW
— Guelph Police Service (@GuelphPolice) July 17, 2023
While Tracey said they don’t necessarily want people to disable the feature, if it happens repeatedly it’s worth considering whether you need the feature or not. At the very least, he said to be mindful of how you’re carrying and where you’re placing your phone.
Another big reason for accidental calls, he said, is that people often don’t realize a cell phone without a SIM card can still connect to 911.
“So people will have an old phone that still is able to power on but it doesn't have a SIM card in it, and they give it to their kids so they can play with them. If the child dials 911, or if this feature is activated and they press the volume button over and over again, it will call 911,” he said.
In those cases, either the child panics and hangs up or is too young to provide the operator with the necessary information. He suggested taking the battery out or making sure it can’t be turned on before giving it to children to play with.
“That would cut down on a lot of the calls that we get,” he said.
Tracey also said they encourage people to avoid programming 911 into their phone, since the number is intentionally easy to dial as it is. Don't call 911 to test if your phone working, either.
Calls like these use up a lot of time and resources, since if the caller hangs up, police have to follow up.
If you do call 911 by accident, it’s important to stay on the line to explain what happened.
“People think they might get in trouble, that’s certainly not the case,” Tracey said. “It’s much easier for our 911 operators to determine that there’s no emergency.”
“The worst thing that people can do is to hang up, because then we're in a situation where we don't know if it was an emergency or not.”
When that happens, he said they have to exhaust their resources following up with the person – calling the number back, sending texts, sometimes even contacting the phone company and dispatching officers to physically check on them.
“It’s quite exhaustive and quite time consuming,” he said.
Another thing to note is that even if you catch the accidental call on the first ring, the call has already gone through.
“It connects almost instantly. So by the time you see on the phone that it’s dialing, it has already connected on our end,” he said, again noting it’s better to stay on the line.
“Every second that an operator takes trying to follow up an accidental call is potentially a 911 call that's being not answered for a true emergency,” he said.
