(Green Lake County) Green Lake County Chief Deputy Matt Vande Kolk says the number of accidental 911 calls they have fielded over the past two years has decreased significantly. It has to do with an Emergency SOS feature on smart phones that were being triggered by sudden motions the phone interpreted as a traumatic injury from a fall or car accident.
Often it happened by someone using a riding lawnmower or sitting in bag chair with cup holders. Vande Kolk says it was a real issue, but from 2023 to 2024 those accidental calls went down by about 70-percent. He believes the problem solved itself as technology for those phones continued to evolve.
At one point in February of 2023 the number of accidental 911 calls the Green Lake County Sheriff’s Office was receiving had increased from about 30 per month to nearly 150.
