f6twister

Part of my job involves answering 911 calls. In the past three weeks, I've received calls from kids calling 911 on a cell phone just for fun. In one case, the kid tells his 2 year old sister to say hi or plays music. In another case a kid claims to be hit by a car. Thankfully, no one was hit by a car but it took some time to make that determination.

The one common thing in every case is that the kids are playing with a cell phone their parents gave to them as a toy after buying a new phone. An interesting thing about cell phones is that they can still dial 911 as long as they have power. Disconnected your service, it doesn't matter. Took out the sim card, it doesn't matter. The only way to prevent the phone from dialing 911 is to take off the battery. Better yet, don't give them the phone at all.

We have to investigate all reports of an emergency, even if we think it is a prank. The process of obtaining cell phone owner/caller information is complicated and ties up a 911 operator for at least 5-10 min. That is one less person to answer your real emergency. You may ask about caller id or cell phone tracking. While the reality is that most 911 centers in the U.S. are not yet equipped with the proper systems to track these types of calls, that really isn't the point. Even if we were able to track the call, we would still need to send an officer to the location of the call to determine if there is an emergency.

If you children have a real cell phone for a toy, please either take it away or remove the battery. If they absolutely need a phone that makes noise, buy a toy. There are plenty of cell phone toys out there.

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A little rudeness and disrespect can elevate a meaningless interaction to a battle of wills and add drama to an otherwise dull day. Calvin