
That call was later determined to have originated. But dispatchers say the federal regulations, intended to help crime victims, have actually created huge hassles for 911 operators. Two online gamers allegedly made a prank call to 911 that led a Kansas police officer to fatally shoot an unarmed man in a case of 'swatting.'. Wireless technology has made it easier than ever to call for help, even using old, deactivated phones, which are required by federal law to still be able to call 911. Making a prank phone call to 911 is a serious crime, punishable by jail time and significant fines. In the United States, the first 911 service was established by the Alabama Telephone Company and the first call was made in Haleyville, Alabama, in 1968 by Alabama Speaker of the House Rankin Fite and answered by U.S.

When a serious call comes in, we have to send people out to check." The first known use of a national emergency telephone number began in the United Kingdom in 19371938 using the number 999, which continues to this day. Please note that this section does not apply if a parent, guardian or custodian of a child makes a good faith report that a child is missing. "It creates a nightmare scenario," said Craig Whittington, the 911 coordinator in Guilford County, N.C. A person convicted of prank calling 911 is also liable for the reasonable costs of any emergency services response. On Tuesday, 18-year-old Ryan Grasley of Baltimore called 911 to tell the police about a shooting in his neighborhood. The little girl's emergency? She wanted to order McDonald's food.Īcross the country, emergency dispatchers say they they're facing a deluge of phony - and often untraceable - emergency calls from deactivated phones, wasting resources that could be devoted to actual emergencies. Here are some of the 911 prank calls that have gone wrong so you can avoid the same mistakes in case you try to do a prank call in the future: Ryan Grasley 911 Prank Call Gone Wrong. Intentional 911 abuse includes nonemergency calls, prank calls, exaggerated emergency calls, and lonely complainant calls. Outside Chicago, the Carpentersville emergency call center received 287 calls last month from a 4-year-old who was playing with an old, deactivated cell phone. Russell could face charges of false reporting to law enforcement authorities or falsely reporting an incident - both of which are misdemeanors.J - A 911 call center in North Carolina was flooded with dozens of calls last month from a man with a deactivated cell phone who was reporting phony crimes.ĭispatchers repeatedly sent police out to investigate only to find nothing. Her attorney came clean on her behalf this week.ĪL.com reported that Ms.

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Russell’s story after phone records revealed she looked up a movie about a woman’s abduction and researched one-way bus tickets to Nashville, Tennessee. She said she was forced into the back of a tractor-trailer and held captive for two days before making her escape.Īuthorities in Hoover, Alabama, questioned Ms. The 25-year-old then vanished, becoming a national news story in the process. Russell originally called 911 on July 13 saying she saw a toddler walking alone on the side of the interstate near Birmingham.
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The preteen’s prank call came after an attorney for Carlee Russell admitted Monday that the Alabama woman spun a tall tale about her own abduction this month - which could also result in criminal charges. 2C:33-3 False Public Alarms against making false or prank calls to 9-1-1 and violators will be prosecuted. The call was a joke, created and pulled off by Mickey Dawes, a representative of the company who provided the software for Cypress Creek's 911 system, 'as a prank to loosen up a dispatcher nervous. We’re going to investigate every incident, but today it wasted valuable resources that might have helped someone else who legitimately needed our help,” Sheriff Mike Chitwood said. “This kind of prank activity is dangerous.


However, the legal consequences you will face are determined on a state-by-state basis. Calling 911 for any reason other than reporting an actual emergency is against the law. She later confessed the prank was part of a YouTube challenge. The girl told responding deputies that she learned about the 911 prank from YouTube and thought it “would be funny.” Making a prank phone call to 911 is a serious crime, punishable by jail time and significant fines. 911 calls without validation, and reasoned that users of public pay phones, the closest wireline analogy to a wireless handset, are able to place 911 calls. An 11-year-old Florida girl was arrested after she falsely texted authorities that her friend had been kidnapped by an armed man.
