A Durango woman upset that an AT&T store wouldn’t open its doors 10 minutes early last week called 911 to vent her frustrations.
“They’re messing up my whole day,” the woman complained to a dispatcher. “I’m shaking right now.”
Some people dial 911 for true emergencies, but most use it for other reasons, including to complain about business practices or to get information about school closures and power outages, said Susanne Meyers, operations supervisor for the Durango-La Plata Emergency Communications Center.
Of the 19,000 calls made to 911 last year, “at least” half shouldn’t have gone through 911, she said.
Last week, dispatchers received three calls from people having trouble with cellphone service, Meyers said.
“That is not 911-related,” she said.
Last year, someone called 911 to find out what time trick-or-treating started. Another person called 911 to report that a product purchased from Bed, Bath & Beyond didn’t work.
“People just need to understand it’s emergency services,” Meyers said. “It’s 911, not 411.”
Another common problem occurs when people call 911 long after the “emergency” has passed, she said.
She gave this example: A car pulls into a driveway in the middle of the night and shines its lights on the house before driving away. It seems suspicious. But instead of calling 911 right away, the person waits three hours and then calls 911.
At that point, it no longer is an emergency, Meyers said.
“We get a lot of calls on 911 that do not need to come in on 911,” she said.
The 911 service is for life-threatening emergencies and law-enforcement emergencies, she said. A few emergencies that qualify: robberies, burglaries, medical trauma, domestic violence and in-progress law-enforcement incidents, Meyers said.
A police officer typically responds to anyone who makes a 911 call. If the call is not an emergency, people are warned not to call 911 and told to call the nonemergency dispatch line.
If police determine someone is abusing the 911 service, they can issue a citation.
“They just need to ask themselves, ‘Is this a life-threatening situation that is occurring right now? Is it in progress?’ If it’s something that scared you last night, you should probably just call the dispatch number,” Meyers said.
The woman who called 911 while standing outside the AT&T store was issued a verbal warning.
shane@durangoherald.com
