Emergency call centers, locally and throughout the nation, are asking the public to assist them with an issue. 

Dallas County Sheriff Adam Infante says that they are seeing a spike in unintentional 911 phone calls to their dispatch which are taking up time and resources. Infante explains that most of the calls are coming from smartphones that are automatically dialing 911 when they sense a sudden movement. He tells Raccoon Valley Radio what people should do if their phone automatically dials 911 accidentally. 

“The important thing to do is when those phones automatically dial 911, don’t hang up, just stay on the phone. Tell the dispatcher, ‘Hey, I’m sorry. This was an accidental 911 phone call.’ They might ask you a couple clarifying questions to make sure everything’s okay, but it’s important not to hang up. If you hang up. Then we have to redial you  and that takes a phone line and a person. And it just adds time to a situation that doesn’t need more time. It could be clarified pretty easily in one shot.”

Infante adds that getting to know your smart device can prevent these situations from happening.