Have you ever dialed 911 by accident? If you have, not to worry, sooner or later it happens to everyone that uses a phone. Here is some useful information on what to do when this happens.

Several times daily our center receives 911 hang-up calls. Some are accidental while others are intentional. Generally 911 hang-up calls received from within our area are a direct result of someone trying to dial long distance or attempting a number with the exchange of "791 - 1XXX." The seven is not pressed firm enough when dialing the number, so the telephone system thinks you are dialing 911

If you do dial 911 by accident, do not become alarmed or frightened by the mistake and immediately hang up the phone. Please stay on the phone until someone at the communications center answers. When the communicator asks what your emergency is, simply tell him/her that you dialed 911 by accident. The communicator will verify your address, name and phone number for future reference, then both parties can end the call. Often times though, callers hang up when they realize they called 911 by accident. When this happens the call shows up in the communications center as an abandoned call. Or if a phone is dropped or knocked off the table and dials 911, we may end up with an open line 911 call. In either instance, immediately a 911 communicator will call you back to check if everything is okay at your residence. If the phone is busy or if there is no answer at the location where the call came from a law enforcement officer will be dispatched to the location to attempt to make contact with someone.

Cell phone 911 hang-up calls are another challenge facing the communications center. A lot of times a cell phone dials 911 by accident, and there will be no voice on the line. All the communicator may hear are voices or music in the background. The communicator will try to speak loud enough to get someone to answer. At this time cell phones do not provide the callers location which makes it difficult to locate someone that may have a real emergency and need help. The only location provided by the cell phone call is the tower address from where the cell phone call is transmitted from. So if you do call 911 to report an emergency using your cell phone  please tell us where you are. If you can't provide exact street numerics as to your location, tell us what landmarks that are around you. While cell phones do provide modern handy mobile communications please be careful when carrying them. At anytime they can accidentally dial 911.