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False 911 calls increasing in valley
By Stephanie Stevens
Inactively active?
It is a thing.
During his quarterly report to District of Invermere council March 12, Columbia Valley RCMP Detachment commander, Sgt. Darren Kakuno, said that he noticed false 911 calls in 2018 were up by nearly 100 from 2017, from 253 to 347.
A part of the reason for this is deactivated cell phones.
“Every 911 call has to be followed up on, but if we cannot call the phone, it makes following up really difficult,” said Kakuno.
“A lot of people don’t know that a deactivated cell phone can still dial 911. They give it to the kids or grandkids to play with, but if the kids hit 911, the call does go through.”
Deactivated cells are not the only reason for the rise in false calls, but it is one of the easiest to prevent: take out the battery.
“The issue we have is we have to follow up on every 911 call and determine if it is an actual emergency,” said Kakuno. “With a cell phone call, we try to call it back, but if no one answers, we have to try to find where it is, and with only a couple of cell towers here, we can only get a general idea of location.”
Kakuno said police can sometimes narrow it down to a radius of a few kilometres, but often the area is even broader. For example, they can tell the call came from Invermere or Radium Hot Springs, but then RCMP members have to patrol around to see if they can locate a disturbance.
Kakuno said if you inadvertently call 911, you should stay on the line and explain to dispatch it was an error. Even if you think you have hung up in time because you did not hear a ring, a 911 call goes through instantly and will still have to be followed up on.
Other culprits are pocket dialling, for which Kakuno suggests ensuring you have a lock on your keypad, and hitting the incorrect speed dial or favourites button.
“People sometimes think having 911 on their speed dial is a good idea, but not only can it result in an inadvertent 911 call, it often takes longer to find that programmed button than to just hit 911.”
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