Butt Dialing 9-1-1 A Real Issue

It may sound like a joke, but Fond du Lac County Dispatch wastes a lot of time checking out 9-1-1 calls in which the person butt dialed them by mistake. County Communications and Emergency Management Director Bobbi Hicken says they urge people to make sure the keypads are locked down on their smart phones to prevent the problem. She says to dispatchers it may sound like the caller is in a struggle and they check out all 9-1-1 calls. She says, “We will call them back and hopefully vibrates or they can hear it and we can validate nothing is wrong. But otherwise we have to have officers checking the area and making sure that everything is okay. People joke about it, but truly it is an issue.” The County’s Text to 9-1-1 service was just activated, which could lead to other issues with inadvertent calls.