Richmond District RCMP received a total of 18 911 calls from the same deactivated cell phone between January 19 and February 7. For most of the calls, no one answered the dispatcher and hung up on them when they were asked, “911, what is your emergency?” In three of the calls, the caller said that they needed help. The dispatcher could hear the caller laughing.
“Any cell phone, even if it’s deactivated, will call 911 if it’s charged,” says Glen Byrne, Commander of the RCMP Operational Communications Centre. “We have to answer all 911 calls, and the police officers on the road have to respond to them as well. The individual who was calling us was taking away valuable resources from other potential emergency situations.”
St. Peter’s Detachment investigated the 911 calls and found that two female youths from Framboise, ages 12 and 14, made the calls. The RCMP worked with the youth, their parents, and the local school and both were given a Formal Caution, which is an option that police have under the Youth Criminal Justice Act as an alternative to laying a charge. The fine for making false 911 calls under the Nova Scotia Emergency 911 Act is $697.50.
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Source: Media Release
