“I Hate You, That's My Emergency!”

“I hate you, that’s my emergency!”

The woman had called into the Prince Georges County 911 Call Center to rant about nothing in particular. She may have been trying to hurt the operator’s feelings, but she could have been hurting a total stranger in need of real emergency assistance.

“The 9-1-1 number is for emergencies only,” says Charlynn Flaherty, the county’s Assistant Director at the call center. “It’s life and death, you’re having a heart attack, your house is on fire, you’re under immediate threat, there’s a crime in progress.”

Flaherty says that of the 1.2 million calls they receive every year, about 20 percent are either pranks or non-emergencies.

Recently, the county had fallen behind in its time frame for dealing with emergency calls. Officials determined it was because operators were also dealing with non-emergency callers who’d dialed the emergency number anyway.

Recently, Prince George's County put a non-emergency number into operation, and they saw the numbers go back up. The non-emergency number includes a ”phone tree,” which will direct any emergencies inadvertently phoned in to the non-emergency number, to their proper place -- with an emergency operator.

Other calls get sent to their appropriate destinations.

“Say somebody a caller knows a loved one didn’t come home over the weekend, and they want to know if they’re in jail,” Flaherty said. “They can call the phone tree and be directed to the Department of Corrections."

Right now, the non-emergency number is a standard seven-digit number (301-352-1200), but plans are in place to set up a three-digit number in the near future.

So, 911 callers like the man who said his toilet was backed up, can now be better served, as will the citizen calling to report a fire.

Flaherty is looking forward to the three-digit non-emergency number.

“It’s an incredible innovation and it will help us here, too.”

Click here to listen to some of the non-emergency calls that have reached emergency operators.