VERO BEACH, Fla. —Some Android users are accidentally calling 911 because of a recent update. This is giving managers problems and putting a lot of pressure on resources that are already scarce.
“It’s extreme. “We get so many every day that we have to call them back, which uses up our resources,” said Joanna Hau, who is in charge of dispatching in Indian River County. “Five 911 lines could be ringing, and three of them could be open lines that don’t know their phone has called.”
The Emergency SOS tool on people’s phones seems to have been turned on by a recent Android update, which caused them to call 911 by accident.
Erick Gill, who is in charge of communications for St. Lucie County, said, “Our dispatchers noticed a rise in calls that were just hang-ups.”
Joanna Hau, who is in charge of the dispatch shift, says that Indian River County has had as many as 100 of these calls in just 24 hours.
“People get mad when they say, “Well, why did you take so long to answer?” “Well, because I was on hold with 911 three times before you,” she replied.
She says that there aren’t enough people to work the 12-hour shifts because there are fewer than 20 people. This makes things even harder.
Hau said, “We’re already short, and there are only five of us on the floor.” “It’s a lot for our call-takers when we have to stop and can’t take the next 911 call because we have to call this cell phone back and make sure it’s not a real emergency.”
“We already have limited resources, and we want to make sure that our dispatchers are responding to real emergencies and helping the public as much as possible,” Gill said.
Even if a call to 911 is made by mistake, the reaction is real.
“They’re going to get a deputy knocking on their door,” Hau said about people who hang up and don’t answer when dispatchers call back. “We have to send them out to check on them and make sure there isn’t a real emergency.”
