The San Benito County Communications Center, which handles
emergency 911 calls for both law enforcement agencies and fire
departments in the county, is harried by prank calls and hang-ups
that can delay emergency response times on a daily basis.
Hollister – The San Benito County Communications Center, which handles emergency 911 calls for both law enforcement agencies and fire departments in the county, is harried by prank calls and hang-ups that can delay emergency response times on a daily basis.
Joseph Alvarado, the center’s acting communications manager, has worked as a dispatcher for nearly two decades and knows that calling 911 is no joke. But not everyone understands that making prank calls to 911 can delay the response time of firefighters or police officers, Alvarado said. On any given shift, only two or three dispatchers are on duty, so resources are limited. Every time a dispatcher has to deal with a non-emergency call, a dispatcher isn’t available to answer a serious one.
Nearly 34 percent of the 200 calls that come into the communications center every day are hang-ups, Alvarado said. And the vast majority of the other 56 percent of calls are for non-emergency situations.
“It’s incredibly time consuming for both us and law enforcement,” Alvarado said. “It blocks the line and can increase response times.”
Hollister Police Department Spokesman George Ramirez agreed.
“911 is here for everyone, but hang-ups and prank calls take away from those who really need help,” he said. “Even if you just dialed 911 on accident, stay on the line and tell the dispatcher what happened, otherwise we have to send our officers to find out.”
Although prank calls are much less common than hang-ups,they do happen, Ramirez said.
Last Saturday, Hollister police officers arrested a 11-year-old male and a 13-year-old male for making four prank 911 calls between 1pm and 7pm, Ramirez said. The two juveniles made reports of several crimes, but when officers responded, they found that no such crime was actually in progress. The two juveniles were charged with making annoying and harassing phone calls, a misdemeanor. While Alvarado and other dispatchers visit area schools every year to talk to students about the communication center and teach them what to do in case of emergency, not everyone gets the message.
“I guess it’s just bound to happen,” he said. “But almost every time a kid will call 911 after learning about it at school just to see what happens.”
Phony calls are usually easy to spot, Alvarado said.
“Most of the time it’s going to be children and we can tell it’s a prank call – it’s kind of like being a human lie detector,” he said. “But we never treat it as a joke, we always send an officer out to the address to see what is going on.”
The only time a resident should dial 911 is to report a life-threatening emergency or a crime in progress.
“A loud party or barking dog is not considered a crime in progress,” he said.
The communication center is not alone. The Hollister-Gilroy California Highway Patrol is also inundated with non-emergency calls, said spokesman Chris Armstrong. Most cellular 911 calls are directed to the CHP and not local police, Armstrong said. If calling 911 from a cell phone, residents should be reporting a crime in progress, reckless or suspected drunk driver, road hazard or serious accident, Armstrong said.
“We don’t want people calling 911 for weather reports, phone numbers, traffic conditions, directions or other minor incidents,” he said.
Armstrong also urged Spanish-speaking callers to be patient.
“Don’t get frustrated and don’t hang up,” he said. “Be patient, an interpreter will always be there to help out.”
