Many 911 calls coming from butt dials
Pocket dials accounted for about 20 percent of all 911 calls in San Francisco last year, according to a study conducted by Google.
The city does not specifically track accidental 911 calls made from mobile phones, but the study found most of the unknown or miscellaneous 911 calls logged were from pocket dials — sometimes known as butt dials.
{mosads}Those unknown calls increased slightly from 2012 to 2014.
“As smartphone ownership increases, accidental dials to 9-1-1 increase,” the study’s authors concluded. “Based on the data collected, the majority of callbacks by 9-1-1 dispatchers are made to wireless phones.”
A Google Volunteer project analyzed data and shadowed employees in San Francisco’s Department of Emergency Management to investigate the 911 call volume increase. The study also looked at crime and homelessness in the city.
The study found that pocket dials from mobile phones eat up much more time than an accidental call from a landline. That is because dispatchers have to call back accidental butt dials more often.
“When the dispatcher receives these calls, they only hear an open line and they must call back the number to leave a voicemail,” the report reads. “However, most accidental dials from wireline phones come from payphones or building switchboards. Because dispatchers are unable to call back these phone sources, a smaller percentage of calls require the dispatcher to call back which reduces the length of the process.”
Michael O’Rielly, a Republican member of the Federal Communications Commission, made a plea for the government to do something to curb accidental calls to 911 after visiting field offices in New York and Alaska last year.
One idea would be for wireless carriers to automatically text customers who make a 911 call to make people aware of their accidental dials and encourage them to be more careful. The commissioner also broached the idea of “some type of penalty fee” for customers who make repeated butt dials to 911.
“Clearly, any solution shouldn’t make it harder for consumers to dial 911 in times of need, but we must find ways to educate consumers about better securing their wireless devices,” O’Rielly said last year.
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