Misuse of emergency number a problem, police say.Wednesday, November 22, 2006
On one end of the phone line, Round Rock police dispatchers prepared emergency respond- ers.
On the other end, a 7-year-old boy had the giggles.
Three hours and 49 phone calls later, two police officers found the prank caller in a classroom at Bluebonnet Elementary School.
Turns out, the boy had been calling from a deactivated cell phone, and he would hang up when dispatchers answered, said Eric Poteet, a spokesman for the Round Rock Police Department. Because of his age, police aren't releasing his name.
"He was just doing it for fun because he had a cell phone," Poteet said. "The only number that would work was 911."
The boy's Nov. 14 calling spree was unusual, but it's just another example of the bizarre nonemergency or hang-up calls fielded daily by 911 dispatchers, Poteet said.
From January to October alone, Round Rock dispatchers received nearly 3,100 calls from people who then hung up without giving any information. About 5 percent of those calls actually required police action, Poteet said.
Officers are always assigned to respond to the calls and verify that there is no emergency, and it takes a lot of time to track down each call, Poteet said. If someone calls 911 by mistake, the best thing to do is stay on the line and explain, he said.
"We understand that people accidentally call," Poteet said. "But stay on the phone with the dispatcher, and at least explain why you made the accidental call."
Because the cell phone the boy used was deactivated and had no account attached to it, dispatchers couldn't pinpoint where the call was coming from. Instead, they used cell phone relay towers to define a 2-square-mile area of the caller's location, Poteet said.
During one of the calls, they heard classroom chatter in the background and decided to check out the elementary school. Once they found the boy, the officers confiscated the phone and called his parents, Poteet said.
School officials couldn't be reached for comment Tuesday evening.
Although making silent or abusive calls to 911 is a Class B misdemeanor, punishable by up to 180 days in jail and a $2,000 fine, the boy was not charged because of his age, Poteet said.
Parents need to talk to their children about when it's appropriate to call 911, and then lead by example, Poteet said.
"Educate your kids that 911 is for emergency only," Poteet said.
