The OPP are starting a social media campaign they hope will limit the number of unintentional or unnecessary 9-1-1 calls.
The #KnowWhenToCall campaign is designed to educate the public about unintentional emergency calls so they can continue to decrease the number they receive. The public education campaign launched last week includes posters, poster cards and short videos available for use by schools and community partners to help spread the message.
This is the first week of the three week campaign and the material being released is targeted at youth returning to school. The next two weeks will focus on other parts of the community. The OPP say they received over 140,000 unintentional or unnecessary emergency calls between January 1st and June 30th. Whenever an unintentional call or pocket dial is received by police the operator must determine whether it is an actual emergency or not, and this takes them away from calls that may be more time sensitive.
If you place an accidental emergency call do not hang up. The OPP want you to stay on the line and tell the operator it was unintentional. Every call to 9-1-1 is taken seriously and if a caller does not respond it is a possible sign of trouble that cannot be ignored.
Some suggestions the OPP have for preventing pocket dials and unintentional calls are use the keypad lock function, turn off the 9-1-1 auto dial feature, do not program 9-1-1 into your speed dial and don’t let children play with mobile phones. The campaign products are available here.
