(Juneau) The Dodge County Sheriff’s Office say they are still dealing with a high volume of accidental 911 calls. The agency says in the month of June, dispatchers have fielded roughly 823 911 misdials. The issue started several years ago when Apple launched an emergency SOS feature which dials 911 by pressing the cellphones side button five times or more rapidly.
Recently, Android added this same feature and it amplified the problem exponentially. However, Sheriff Dale Schmidt credits Android for finally doing something about it.
“Because, recently, they put a new update out…and if you’re an Android user, please pay attention to this…I need you to go in [to your phone] and check – [the update] may not necessarily be available on your phone yet but in the coming weeks it will be – that if you accidentally push that [button] on the side of your phone it won’t automatically call 911 anymore,” says Schmidt. “It will set off an alert on your phone…actually a siren on your phone…and then if you actually want to call 911 you push the button and it will dial.”
The issue still exist on Apple devices, but Schmidt says he plans to work with state and federal partners to encourage the company to follow suit with an update of their own.
On average, it takes deputies about 10 hours a week to respond to 911 hangups. The sheriff says they do this to ensure the call was not for an actual emergency. He urges anyone who accidentally dials 911 to stay on the line.
Schmidt says to not hangup and notes that everyone gets a little worried when they call 911 by mistake. “You’re not going to be in any trouble…say ‘hey, I’m sorry my phone accidentally called 911 I’m letting you know.’ We won’t count that as a hangup. We will count that as somebody made a mistake, they stayed on the phone, they explained it to us.”
Schmidt says it is more suspicious when people hangup. He adds that staying on the line saves law enforcement a lot of time.
The sheriff’s office recently released a PSA video about the topic, click HERE to watch the video.
