A dysfunctional electric shaver and a big spider in the bathroom is enough to make one reporter complain, but these certainly don’t justify anyone calling emergency services.
E-Comm, BC’s largest 9-1-1 call center, released it’s top-10 reasons not to call today. The list that included both these situations.
It sounds funny at first, but spokesperson Jasmine Bradley says it’s a real issue. Call-takers could be dealing with real emergencies instead of being stuck on these calls.
“We do get calls, like the ones on our top-10 list, every day. We hope that by explaining the impact that these types of calls have on emergency resources that people will think twice about calling 9-1-1 for any other reason than a life safety issues.”
Bradley says defines a “true emergency” as something jeopardizing someone’s health, safety, and/or property or there is a crime taking place.
Call-takers can’t hang up until they can confirm the caller is safe; it’s their responsibility to listen to background noise and assess the situation for an emergency, even if the call sounds like a non-issue. All of this can take valuable time that could be spent on true emergencies.
So next time you need to know the time, ask anyone else but 9-1-1.
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