911 misdials cost Calgarians $1-million a year
Posted Aug 11, 2014 3:47 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Calgarians are dishing out about a million dollars every year for accidental calls to 911.
Commander Richard Hinse says that is the cost of the roughly 300 misdials and pocket dials made to the call centre every day.
He says it’s really important if you call in, even by accident, not to hang up.
“Oh yeah, you know you’ve made a mistake. It’s embarrassing, and you probably want to disconnect and hope it’s all going to go away. But, as you can imagine on 911, it doesn’t go away until we are ensured that there is not a Calgarian that needs our assistance,” he said.
If you stay on the phone, they can usually clear up the mistake in about 30 seconds, but if you hang up and they can’t get a hold of you, Hinse says they have to send out patrol cars, something even more difficult if the call comes from a cell phone.
