What to do when you mistakenly dial 911
Officers say even if you mistakenly call, they still need to call back and arrive on scene.
MARIETTA, Ohio (WTAP) - You probably have mistakenly called someone before, but have you ever called 911 by accident?
The Washington County Sheriff’s Office said it receives up to five calls like this per shift.
Lieutenant Mathais Brown said in 2022 alone, the department received 18-hundred calls of people mistakenly dialing 911.
Brown said most times when a person does this they will immediately hang up. And because of this, the department still needs to call back and go to the place of when the call took place. Mainly for the sake of being safe.
“So, that’s why if the phone hangs and even we call back and get a hold of you, you tell us everything is fine, we’re still going to go. Because on occasion it is a legit emergency. Could be an assault or whatever and we find out when we get there that a crime actually occurred,” Brown said.
As Brown said in the 18-hundred calls where someone immediately hangs up, seven of those instances led to a report being filed.
Brown said if you did mistakenly call 911, you will need to stay on the line to tell the department it was a mistake.
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