BROWN COUNTY, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) — The Brown County 911 Center says it has been receiving an alarming number of accidental 911 calls. Last week the center processed nearly a thousand of those calls — that not only take up time, but also resources to sort out.
Technology like smartphones and smartwatches are making it easier to call 911 for help in an emergency.
“When you’re in the emergency sometimes you don’t realize the things that you have to do, where you are or what’s going on. To have that just takes one thing off of your plate when you do have those emergency situations,” says Michael Schumacher with Cellcom.
But that technology is also making it easier to dial the number by accident. It really doesn’t take much to bump some buttons on your phone and activate the emergency function, especially this time of year.
According to Cullen Peltier, Director of Brown County Public Safety Communications, “People are out and about. They’re doing these things. They’re putting them in cupholders, when they’re jogging in a jogging stroller, at the baseball game or wherever it is so you definitely see an uptick as the weather gets nicer.”
But it’s what people do after making that accidental call that is becoming a strain on not only dispatchers, but also first responders. When the caller doesn’t respond, the dispatcher tries to call back. And if the callback goes unanswered a series of steps are taken to try and connect with the caller to make sure they’re okay.
“Our supervisors will start looking into our systems here to try and see if they’ve had an recurring calls at that number or if there have been incidents at that number. They’ll text the person back,” says Peltier.
At the same time, officers or deputies are also being dispatched to check the area where the call originated — pulling them away from other potential calls. “We only have so much staff on and we want to be responding to real emergencies so it is a time management thing and obviously the less calls we have the better service we can provide,” adds Capt. Brian Amenson with Ashwaubenon Public Safety.
Brown County officials understand the importance of that emergency function, and they don’t want people to cut it off permanently, but you can set it up to be less reactive.
Officials just want people to be aware of the capability of their smart device and understand if they do accidentally call, don’t hang up or answer if you get a call back. Peltier says, “Please stay on the line. Talk to the supervisor or the call taker so they can discern if there’s an issue and if there’s no issue we’ll resolve the call and move on.”
According to the Brown County 911 Center, most smartphones and watches have Emergency SOS features that may be activated by pressing the volume or power buttons multiple times (depending on the operating system or phone). To deactivate those features, follow the steps below.
Android:
1. Open your phone’s Settings app.
2. Tap Safety & emergency Emergency SOS.
3. Turn off Use Emergency SOS.
iPhone:
1. Go to Settings > Emergency SOS.
2. Turn “Call with Hold and Release” on or off: Hold and release the side and volume buttons to start a countdown to call emergency services.
3. Turn “Call with 5 presses” on or off: Rapidly press the side button five times to start a countdown to call emergency services.
AppleWatch:
1. Open the Watch app on your iPhone, then tap the My Watch tab.
2. Tap Emergency SOS.
3. Turn off Hold Side Button to Dial.
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