Emergency calls rise 47 percent since 2003

    The Washington Safety Center is fielding more and more 911 calls every year. That was what the Communications Commission members learned at their meeting Monday night. Communications Supervisor Cara Sorrells distributed a packet of information to the commissioners that included the number of 911 calls for each town in the county over the past year.

    The safety center received a total of 9,916 calls in 2010, which is almost 4 percent more than last year. Washington residents were responsible for more than half of those at 5,191. Since 2003, the number of 911 calls has increased 47 percent.

    Sorrells said the increasing number of calls is attributable in large part to cell phones. She said that if multiple people call in a single car accident, it is only coded as one call. What drives the increase in calls is that more incidents are reported nowadays than in the past.

    ?More people have cell phones, which means there are more eyes to see things,? she said.

    Sorrells said that the increase in calls doesn?t necessarily mean more people are calling over frivolous matters.

    ?It?s hard to say what counts as ?frivolous,?? she said. ?Some people wouldn?t think a loose dog is an emergency, but others may see it as a safety concern.?

    Prosecuting someone for making unnecessary 911 calls is very difficult, said Sorrells. She said a person is not usually charged if he or she genuinely believes the situation is an emergency.

    ?To some, a dispute over a toaster is an emergency,? she said. ?We once got a call because there was a fight over a can opener. In those circumstances, we can?t file charges when the people think they?re using it (911) appropriately.?

    Sorrells recalled one incident many years ago when a kid made a prank medical call to the safety center. At that same time, there was a real emergency elsewhere in the county.

    ?Some of our units went to the fraudulent address, and we had to get another ambulance to go to the real emergency,? said Sorrells. ?That was a clear-cut misuse of 911.?

    What does the future hold for emergency communication? Sorrells said the day may come when residents can text ?911? to the safety center. Consulting engineer Leonard Koehnen told the commissioners that video calls from cell phones are not far off either.

    The number of calls is of interest to the commission because it partly determines the source of its funding. There are three factors that go into determining what a town pays to the commission. The number of 911 calls from that town is one of them and the other two are assessed value and population. The safety center keeps track of what percent of the total calls emanates from each town, and the same is done with assessed value and population. Adding those percentages together and dividing by three gives you each town?s ?cost share,? or what percent of the total bill it has to pay.

For more, see our Jan. 26 print edition.