Accidental Emergency Calls a Pain in the 'Butt' for 911 Operators

‘Hello, 911. What’s your emergency?’ There were no answer on the side. That call was an accidental call, a ’butt-dial’ in the popular vernacular.

Between 2011 and 2014, the San Francisco 911 call center saw in increase of 28 percent but crime wasn’t on the rise, according to the BBC. The culprits were these butt dials, according to a study released by Google on Monday.

While a majority of ’butt-dial’ calls end up being harmless, these are the kinds of calls that worry emergency operators. It could be a pocket dial or it could be a real emergency call. And there’s no way to determine it without a follow up call, and that takes time.

The city’s Department of Emergency Management partnered with Google through the tech giant’s initiative where its engineers and developers take up projects for social good.

During the survey, researchers found that about 30 percent of 911 calls were butt-dials. All the accidental calls are followed up, taking an average 1 minute and 14 seconds to determine the call was accidental.

This is taking a toll on an already taxed system. While calls have increased, staffing at the San Francisco call center remained flat, the BBC reported.

Employees are encouraged to work overtime or were forced to do so during peak period, according to the BBC.

It’s the No. 1 ‘pain point’ for nearly 40 percent of operators, according to the study.

While the study was limited to San Francisco, anecdotal evidence suggests about 50 percent of the 84 million emergency calls annually were accidental dials, according to the Federal Communication Commission.

“This is a huge waste of resources, raises the cost of providing 911 services, depletes morale, and increases the risk that legitimate 911 calls – and first responders — will be delayed,” FCC Commissioner Michael O’Reilly wrote last year in a blog post.

In a discussion at Code for America summit, a meeting of tech developers and public officials on how to use technology to improve public services, Google researchers say the study was an important start.

This study was the first of its kind, but without data it would be impossible to tackle the problem, the Google team said.

--Photo via Shutterstock