By: Sarah Weikart, Staff Writer
In every state it is illegal to call 9-1-1 without an emergency. This seems as though the vast majority of people in America would understand this concept, however, there seems to be a huge issue with how each individual defines the term “emergency.” This article will define the legal definition of emergency and will further discuss the legal ramifications of deciding to call 9-1-1 for non-emergencies.
An emergency is any situation that requires immediate assistance from the police, fire department or ambulance. [1] Some examples of emergency situations, which require immediate assistance, include medical emergencies such as heart attack or stoke, house fires, domestic violence and house crimes such as burglary or thief in progress. The most common emergencies tend to be car accidents where there is an injury involved or likely to be a future injury. [2]
Calling 9-1-1 without an immediate emergency is a wide spread problem in the United States. Unless immediate assistance is needed, each department has their own non-emergency number, which you can obtain by looking up or calling 4-1-1 to receive more information. When people decide to call 9-1-1 for non-emergency situations they run the risk of blocking emergency calls from actually making it to the dispatcher. Therefore, persons should not call 9-1-1 for information in order to contact the police, medical personnel or fire department. And although unfortunate, 9-1-1 is only for human emergencies and people should refrain from calling 9-1-1 if an animal is in distress. However, if an animal would be endangering humans, it is acceptable to call for emergency assistance. Similar to animal incidents, if your power goes out, your water pipes burst, your phone stops working or your car was broken into last night, those are not considered emergencies. [1][2]
Calling 9-1-1 is not a joke, calling when it is not an emergency can even result in an arrest. For instance, the Police cited a 42-year old Pennsylvania woman for disorderly conduct and misuse of the emergency systems after she called 9-1-1 requesting a divorce. [3] In Florida, a drunken man was arrested by police for calling 9-1-1 because he was refused service at a Taco Bell restaurant drive thru while on foot rather than in his car. [4] A drunken Ohio woman was arrested for calling 9-1-1 to ask for help in finding a date because she was lonely. [5] And in Texas, a woman was charged for abusing the 911 systems when she called police because her husband would not eat his supper. [6]
Overall, calling 9-1-1 for non-emergency situations, such as prank calls, can lead to criminal sanctions. In Pennsylvania, those individuals who decide to make false claims via 9-1-1 can serve up to 2 years in prison and face up to a $5,000 fine. [7] Some of these false claims include: claiming to plan a bomb in a school, exaggerating 9-1-1 calls in order to get assistance sooner or children repeatedly calling 9-1-1 while playing on the phone. Recently, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, “investigators traced more than 100 bogus 9-1-1 calls to the home of a Pittsburgh community activist. Former Mayoral candidate A.J. Richardson and his wife are currently awaiting trial on multiple charges including conspiracy and filing false reports.” [8]
Whenever a 9-1-1 call is placed, police officers have to respond to every call to make sure someone’s not in trouble. Due to the misuse and abuse of the system, human resources are wasted. If you do happen to dial 9-1-1 by mistake, or if a child in your home dials 9-1-1 when no emergency exists, do not hang up—this could make 9-1-1 officials think that an emergency exists and responders may be dispatched to your location. Instead, simply explain to the dispatcher what happened and keep in mind this emergency number is to be used for life and death emergency situations only. [9]
[1] http://www.911.org/HowWhentoCall.asp
[2] http://www.cops.usdoj.gov/Publications/e07042423_web.pdf
[3] http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/04/15/pa-woman-cited-for-callin_n_3085535.html
[4] http://blogs.miaminewtimes.com/riptide/2011/09/drunk_florida_man_calls_911_be.php
[5] http://www.wcpo.com/homepage-showcase/woman-explains-911-call-for-a-date
[6] http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/local_news/article/Woman-suspected-of-abusive-calls-to-Kerrville-911-627435.php
[7]False reports to law enforcement authorities (18 PA. CONST. STAT. § 4906)
[8] http://pittsburgh.cbslocal.com/tag/a-j-richardson/
[9] http://www.911.gov/whencall.html
