WELLINGTON CTY. – Throughout the county, police every day continue to respond to various calls for service.
Constable Mark Cloes of the Wellington County OPP detachment said there is an ever increasing number of 9-1-1 calls misdialed from mobile phones.
Looking at a typical date, March 1, in a 24 hour period, county OPP officers received and responded to a total of 18 calls from 9-1-1. Seventeen of those were either a young child playing with the cell phone, or a person had pocket dialled with the cell phone not locked.
The remaining call was a non emergency call, with a home owner reporting suspicious activity over the past couple days.
Cloes said police officers have to respond to each of those types of calls to ensure the safety of the caller, phone owner or child.
“If you do make an error in your dialling, speak with the call taker; stay on the line so that officers can attend as quickly as possible to verify the safety of the caller and the dialling error,” he said.
The problem with 9-1-1 called in Wellington County show the problem:
– 2008, 1016 calls;
– 2009, 1038 calls;
– 2010, 1570 calls (an increase 51% over the previous year); and
– 2011, 2,340 calls (an increase 49% over the previous year).
Please ensure that the 911 dialling is used only for emergency use. If anyone requires a police officer to attend for service such as neighbour dispute, frauds, criminal activity or most collisions, Cloes urged them to use the toll free OPP dispatch number of 1-888-310-1122.
