Trending Topics

Tenn. cracks down on 911 misuse with clever campaign

‘Don’t call 911 except for truly life-threatening emergencies’ has been advertised on billboards, radio commercials and from a guy in a dinosaur costume; and it’s worked

disaster1-1.JPG

City of Nashville

The Tennessean

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — In a call to 911, the little girl said she was trapped in the trunk of a car, sending Nashville police into a scramble to find her on the highway.

When a 42-year-old man dialed those same three numbers, to say he was considering suicide, police came rushing. Both calls sounded like serious emergencies. They weren’t.

No, they were just two of the thousands of calls — mistaken dials, non-emergencies, pranks or outright frauds — that wasted the time of local emergency responders who say they can’t ignore even the least convincing callers.

Read full story: From drunken calls to the trivial, Nashville cracks down on 911 abuse

RECOMMENDED FOR YOU