The Saskatchewan RCMP hosted a unique event last week that proved quite popular with the public.
From 6 p.m. November 20 to 2 a.m. November 30 the force live-tweeted all of the calls it received at its 911 call centre in Regina. In that eight-hour period dispatchers received approximately 130 calls, which Natalie Gray, communications strategist for 'F' Division (Saskatchewan), tweeted to curious followers was "pretty average" on a weeknight.
The initiative was designed to educate the public on what the operators do and how 911 should be used. Apparently, people were very interested. Between Wednesday and Thursday evening, the number of people following @RCMPSK jumped from just less than 2,300 to more than 3,600.
What struck me was how respectful of 911 the Saskatchewan public was. By my count, significantly more than half the calls were legitimate emergency calls. Granted, the tweets were very brief synopses of the actual calls, but the general rule of thumb is use 911 if an immediate response is required and as near as I could tell close to 90 of them did.
This is a far cry from many jurisdictions where frivolous callers choke the phone lines with ridiculous requests and complaints. Sacramento, California estimates up to 80 per cent of its 911 traffic is non-emergency calls.
I have some personal experience with this. As a technology manager with the police department in Austin, Texas, I would occasionally sit in on a shift at the call centre there. I never did a quantitative analysis, but qualitatively, I would estimate true emergencies were well shy of 50 per cent.
Some of the calls I remember were truly egregious. One woman called to ask for directions to the mall. Another man called to complain about his wife nagging him. It went something like this:
Operator: 911, what is your emergency?
Man: My wife is driving me crazy.
Operator: Is she threatening you, sir?
Man: No, she just won't get off my back.
Operator: Are you afraid you are going to hurt her, sir?
Man: No, she's not even here. I just can't take it any more.
Operator: Sir, this is 911 Emergency. I think you need to call a divorce lawyer.
Then there is the famous case from Florida where a man called 911 because the "sandwich artist" at his local Subway left the mayo and mustard off his sub. When police didn't show up, he called 911 again to find out what was taking them so long. They showed up and arrested him for making frivolous 911 calls.
All in all, I think Saskatchewanians comported themselves quite well during the recent social media experiment. That is not to say we can't do better, which is one of the reasons the cops did it.
It helps to ask a couple of simple questions. Is a crime in progress? Is anyone in immediate danger? Is a suspect on the scene or just recently left the scene?
If the answer to these questions is no, you should probably call your local detachment, 310-RCMP or Crimestoppers.
Another thing 'F' Division used the live-tweet for was to educate people on what to do if you accidentally call 911. It happens all the time. Just a couple of weeks ago, I pocket-dialed the emergency number. I didn't even realize it until a dispatcher called me back and asked if I had an emergency. Coincidentally, I just happened to be on a fire truck at the time, but that is just an aside.
When people accidentally call 911, the natural tendency is to want to hang up either because they don't want to tie up the line in case of a real emergency or they are afraid they will get in trouble.
Gray told the twitterers on Thursday that the correct thing to do is stay on the line. When dispatch gets a hang-up, follow-up is required. She also assured people they will not get in trouble if it is a legitimate accident.
