I accidently called 911 today

[Question]

I got a call this afternoon from a local police department asking if I had dialed 911. My phone was in my pocket; I said I can check my caller log, to which the officer/dispatcher said he knew I dialed 911 . He asked me if my phone was in my pocket; I said yes. I apologized then for calling. He said he could hear my keys and said this problem was not uncommon but he was calling back to make sure everything was OK.

I did check my caller log later on. It did not say 911 or emergency call, but apparently I dialed "112+" right before I got the call from the PD. Would this be construed as an emergency call by our telephony system? Hopefully, some officer/dispatcher/telecom guy may be able to answer.

[ParadeRest]

112 is the European emergency number. Some cell phones automatically dial 911 if you dial that.

[greenlead]

On my cell phone, 911 calls are not logged.

[mcsap]

Whenever we get dispatched to a 911 hangup call , AND the caller says it was a misdial....I ask what number they WERE trying to dial ??

More often then not it is a domestic.

[ngcsubutterbar]

Whenever we get dispatched to a 911 hangup call , AND the caller says it was a misdial....I ask what number they WERE trying to dial ??

More often then not it is a domestic.

I don't like the way my phone (motorola i560) does this. There are little scroll/ptt buttons on the side of my phone. If I just hung up on someone their name is still on the screen when I flip it shut. There is a period of time 5-6 seconds where if you press one of those scroll/ptt buttons on the outside it will redial that number on speaker, or switch to other contacts and call them. 911 happens to be one of my contacts, but luckily so far; I've only dialed extended family members and a pizza that way once.

[mcsap]

I tell everyone , do NOT per-program 911 in any phone. You will dial it accidentally a lot more than you will intentionally.

NOBODY will ever forget how to dial 911 in an emergency.

[Sierra]

NOBODY will ever forget how to dial 911 in an emergency.

Where is the 11 button on my phone again? ;)

[Wolfman]

Yeah, I have had the accidental call a couple of times. In Raleigh the area code is (919) and to dial an outside line from the office we have to dial "9" then the area code and phone number plus a "1" if it is a long distance call...

So early in the morning when the manual dexterity is waining

91919 ###....Doh

[narius]

Why pre-program 911 into your phone? It'll probably take MORE key presses to use the pre-programmed number than to actually press 9-1-1-SEND.

Anyways, never have misdialed 911 yet, and actually haven't even called it intentionally yet either (within seconds of it several times, but someone is always quicker and dials first). ;)

[Wombat311]

Actually, 112 is the international number. Wherever you are in the world, if you dial 112, it will go through to whatever their local emergency operator is, here it's '000', for you guys, '911' and the Brits '999' and so on.

[narius]

Bloody good show, by the way.

[StationM]

People's pants call 911 a lot, and you can usually tell by the walking/swishing sound.

An officer told me about a call his pants made one day. They called his house while he was at the range...in the middle of quals....all his wife heard was gunfire.

[Aussie George]

Some mobile systems will recognise 911 here in Oz. I had a kid who was trying it after watching too much US tv. We went to the school and spoke with him. We "advised" him why it was important to not make stupid prank calls like that. He cried. :D

We get a lot of calls from young children who hit the pre-set button for '000'. Again, it always amazes me...how hard is it to hit '000' in an emergency. Why bother program it into your phone? :confused:

When we receive a call from '000' in our Comms centre a screen pops up showing the address and number the call came from. Of course the address does not help much when it is a mobile. We then ring back if there is no caller on the line.

If we can not raise a caller on that line, we send a patrol to check out what is going on at the house.

All our '000' calls are recorded obviously. I took a call the other day and the caller said "I need police at XXXXXX. My daughter is having an episode and I am restraining her." The caller was relatively calm which helped a lot. He then put the phone down and left it off the hook.

I dispatched a patrol and listened in while they were enroute. I could hear here screaming abuse and threatening to kill her father and herself. I continuously typed into the computer what she was saying. As soon as patrols arrived, the female calmed down and I heard her say that she would put on an act to the police so she would not get locked up.

I let the patrol know what she said by radio so that they had the bigger picture and as soon as they were on scene, disconnected the phone line. No point recording them talking to her :p;):D

She got locked up. :D

Too many times I get calls like this "I NEED POLICE NOW!!!"

"Where are you?"

"AT HOME. SEND THE !@#$%^& COPS NOW!!"

call terminated.

And of course the type of gong beater that would do that would be ringing on a mobile phone and have moved house three times in the last 2 months.

EDIT : Or like the call I just took as I type this...."I want to report I have lost my keys." And that is a life threatening emergency HOW??? F#$%^ IDIOTS!!!! :mad:

[Aussie George]

If your life is that bad that you need to save 2/3 of a second by programing '000' into your phone because it takes longer to dial than to hit one button, and the chances of you needing police assistance that urgently and that frequently that this seems normal and appropriate, then maybe your life is that screwed up it is not worth living anyway!! :eek::rolleyes:

[chewy]

I once "accidently" called 911... It was YEARS ago when I was in the CG. I was, well to say drunk would be unfair to drunks, but plastered, very depressed.... girl trouble... I was making hash (the corned beef kind) and apparently called 911 by accident or something although I don't remember doing it and never could figure out HOW. The cops showed up and I apparently went on and on about how she doesn't like me anymore and my life is over ( you know, all the 19y/o pitty crap). Well, apparently they figured I was more depressed than I actually thought I was and asked, for my safety and well being, if I had any weapons in the house. I told them yes and the hunt was on to find all my guns so I wouldn't "hurt" myself. Now, I've never considered suicide and would never ever consider it but they figured better safe than sorry so they detained my weapons until I sobered up as a favor... I went a day or so later to retrieve them, embarrased to no end, and the Sgt said (as I didn't really remember any of it) that it was quite interesting having his three officers go through my little appartment trying to find all 22 of my guns!

And THAT's why I don't drink anymore... well, not often or a lot anyway!! And I would officially like to say THANKS to the Greenfield WI PD for not calling the CG and reporting me as the CG would have gotten me into a lot of trouble for being that drunk and causing problems!! :D