911 Misuse
Bizarre crimes, angry animals, a prank gone wrong, and more - these are the most mind-boggling EMS stories from the past year
FDNY EMS Chief Lillian Bonsignore says “any and all options” are on the table to prevent a lag in response times due to the spread of COVID-19 among members
Four agencies explain how they’re keeping their communities up to date on COVID-19, give advice on when to call 911 and how to avoid taking COVID-19 home or back to the station
Police said dozens of non-emergency calls poured in within 10 minutes of the 4.6 magnitude quake
Officials said about one-fifth of Xenia’s ambulance calls come from senior living facilities, often for non-emergencies
Officials said all four fabricated calls prompted a “heavy response” from fire, EMS and law enforcement personnel
The man faces a felony charge of disrupting public service after authorities say he made several 911 calls for no reason
The service said it created the video to inform the public about when it is appropriate to call emergency services
Police say the man was given several warnings after calling 911 to chat with dispatchers
Police say the 38-year-old Bronx woman averaged 100 false alarms per day that emergency personnel were forced to respond to
Rising volumes of false fire, medical and burglary alarms have prompted Columbus fire and police administrators to propose stiffer penalties for repeat offenses
Officer Scott Valdez, who brought the boy a Happy Meal, offered some advice on when to call in an emergency
Police said the man was trying to “purposely tie-up” lines when an Amber Alert was issued for five missing children
Jeffery Henson, 57, lives with a genetic neurodegenerative disease and called the fire department more than 90 times in one month
The city will increase staffing for the Resource Access Program, an initiative that provides outreach and resources to residents who are frequent 911 callers
All of the calls that department received was from people wondering what happened, rather than reporting an emergency
The lawsuit alleged that Century Station, which handled the 911 calls, provided poor training to its deputies and had failed annual inspections
A little boy called 911 on a deactivated cell phone to ask for someone to bring him lunch from the golden arches
From people calling to ask about the weather and children accidentally dialing 911 on their parents’ phone, dispatchers receive hundreds of non-emergency calls
Fresno County is saving millions of dollars by not transporting people who have been identified as 911 “frequent fliers” who abuse the system
Isaiah Smith is facing charges after police said he made six false 911 calls over a period of more than a month
Dutch astronaut André Kuipers was making a call via the Johnson Space Center switchboard when he missed a number and called 911
Officials urged parents to teach children not to play with disconnected phones after dispatchers received more than 30 calls in 30 minutes
The Brownsville Fire Department is working to get to the root problems behind 911 callers who frequently ask for assistance—as often as two to five times per week
Alameda County EMT Tonya Powell said she often spends the majority of her shifts transporting people who don’t actually need an ambulance
John Harvey, who has a history of making hundreds of bogus calls for help, was jailed when he began asking bystanders to call for him instead
Lake County dispatchers said they get as many as 10 accidental calls from Apple Watches a day
Two girls, 13 and 14, allegedly threw bricks, glasses and tables at a paramedic crew when they responded to a hoax call about a girl in cardiac arrest
Officials said the 13-year-old boy sometimes reported false emergencies, and just hung up in other calls
Augusta 911 director Daniel Dunlap said roughly half of the nearly 1,000 calls the center averages daily are non-emergency nuisances to dispatchers
Halifax District Royal Canadian Mounted Police used the incident to remind parents to teach their children about when to call 911
The grand jury said the city should immediately resume using a software filter to weed out the most frequent callers
Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office 911 center head Brad Herron said “abuse of a 911 call can take a 911 operator offline for anywhere between five and 10 minutes”
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