NICK GOSNELL
Hutch Post
HUTCHINSON, Kan. — Reno County 911 dispatchers are dealing with hangups to their dispatch center. Because they have no way of knowing if those are accidental or on purpose, they need callers to stay on the line if they accidentally dial 911, otherwise they have to do extra work.
"We just immediately call back a couple times," said dispatcher Melissa McEleheny. "There's a couple people that do it just once, there's a couple people that do it several times. We take whatever number comes in, we search through our cleared calls in our global search to see if it comes back to anyone or if it has come back to any of several previous calls. If we're unable to get a hold of them, that's when you'll hear a voicemail from one of us."
You need to call them back if they leave you a voicemail and they will ask you some questions.
"We had a missed call from this number, we're calling back to make sure everything is okay," McEleheny said. "If they say, oh, it was just an accident, which happens a lot off of watches, Apple Watches and Samsung Watches are the most calls that we get. Second is just accidental pushes, emergency 911 calls off your phone, after that, we will verify who we're talking to and we will verify their address and their phone number. The biggest reason why we verify is because, if we can't do that, we will have to send officers out."
Particularly if this happens in the western part of the county and sheriff's officers have to be dispatched, it can cost them a lot of valuable time.
"There's only so many limited deputies at a time," McEleheny said. "They have to spread out through the whole county. When we have a 911 hangup, that usually is like a two officer call. If we have four on a shift, that means two will go to this one call. There will be times that we have several calls in the county coming in, or just with our officers, there will be several calls coming in. They have to direct their purpose to the 911 hangup. Sometimes, most of the time actually, the officers themselves, while they are en route to the location, will also try to call the number."
The main thing is, it is fastest for them to help you, either to clear the call or to get help on the way, if you stay on the line.
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