Quesnel Having Issues With Fake 9-1-1 Calls

By 250 News

9-1-1, the number is supposed to be for true emergencies, but in the Prince George and Quesnel regions, the number is becoming overused. 

The Quesnel RCMP say in the month of July there were 1,662 calls to 9-1-1 for the Cariboo alone, and not all were emergencies.

Part of the problem lies in the Quesnel exchange numbers of 9-9-1 and 9-9-2.  In Quesnel, the majority of false calls are from people miss-dialling 9-9-1.  The Quesnel detachment averages over 2,000  false or abandoned 9-1-1 calls every year.

Police say that in some cases it involved children playing with the phone and parents or guardians should b e reminded NOT to program 9-1-1 into the phone.  Instead, they suggest, you have the complete information (address, phone number, names) beside the phone, ready to be given to a dispatcher if there is indeed an emergency.

If 9-1-1 is accidentally dialled, police ask that you stay on the phone until the dispatcher determines if an emergency does or doesn’t exist.

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