Odd and inappropriate calls for the city’s emergency line can cause issues for answering other important calls, Edmonton 911 operators say.
“It’s important for people to remember that every one of those 911 calls is taking away from what could be a real emergency,” said Kay Anderson, director of the emergency communications branch with Edmonton Police Service (EPS).
Last year was busy for operators with more than 1,000 911 calls a day. Anderson says the calls are evaluated if the caller needs help from police, fire, ambulance or if it’s not an emergency call at all.
She says 911 operators hear all sorts of non-emergency issues. One of the more common ones include when power outages occur, people call 911 instead of Epcor.
These are some of the more odd calls they’ve received:
- Asking what channel the Oilers game is on
- A child wanting help with their math homework
- Someone saw a mouse in their living room;
- Krispy Kreme wouldn’t give them free donuts;
- A caller reported seeing a crocodile on their driveway, which turned out to be a small salamander;
- The spicy pizza they ordered was too spicy;
- Caller wanted to know what time it was, because all of the clocks in their house had different times;
- They couldn’t find their TV remote; and
- Their child wouldn’t clean their room
“We do get a chuckle out of those calls and we will redirect them to the appropriate resource or just listen to them if we need to,” Anderson said.
Police say you should only call 911 for a life-threatening situation or crimes that are happening.
If there’s no need for an immediate response, you can call EPS’ non emergency line at 780-423-4567 and on your cell phone you can dial #377.
Some scenarios might include your vehicle being broken into, your bike or personal property being stolen or requiring a police officer at your location but a crime isn’t happening.
With files from CTV News Edmonton’s Nahreman Issa
