TISDALE — The Tisdale detachment of the RCMP is asking the community to stop calling 911 for non-emergencies.
The call centre had received five non-emergency 911 calls from within the area in the span of two weeks.
“If we have to, we will be ticketing people for misuse of the 911 program,” said Cpl. Mike Benjamin with the Tisdale detachment. “911 is only for emergencies.”
One was someone asking when their court date was, one was to inform the detachment that they would be missing their curfew and one was for a broken furnace.
“You’re not supposed to call 911 for general inquiries, if you have questions for when your next court date is or if your heater is broken down,” Benjamin said.
Two of the five calls were miscalls intended for 411.
Benjamin explained that callers who make a miscall rather than a “vagrant misuse” of the system are not ticketed, such as the 411 calls.
“Or if it’s kids,” Benjamin explained. “If you have a kid dialing 911 there is not much we can do. Where it is blatant disregard for the act or if they abuse the 911 callers when they talk to them on the phone, we will ticket, and that fine is up to the judge. It’s a direct court summons and the judge decides what the fine will be.”
If someone wishes to reach their RCMP detachment for a non-emergency they can do so by phoning their non-emergency number – which for Tisdale is 306-878-3810.
“You call the office here and if nobody is in the office there are directions to contact the police, don’t just leave the message. You can get a hold of our dispatches – just 911 is not the proper venue if you have a broken furnace or you’re asking when your next court date is.”
In an emergency, such as someone is in immediate danger they are encouraged to call 911. Some examples of this are a break and enter, a medical emergency or if you believe someone is a direct danger to themselves.
