911 operators say misdials and non-emergencies tie them up

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) - Local emergency dispatchers say if you've given your kids your old cell phone to play with, they may be calling 911 with it.

911 operators say they sometimes get multiple calls a day from young children who are playing with a cell phone. 

“They (parents) don’t realize that if they don’t take the battery out, even if’s a cell phone that doesn’t have service, they can still call 911,” said Marion County dispatcher Norma Duckett.

“We get quite a lot of errant calls based off of phones that are no longer really in circulation. So it's a problem,” said Marion County Sheriff’s 911 Center Director Carolea Walters.

Those are among the thousands of other non-emergency calls and misdials to 911 every year.

The calls don't just tie up the operators. In Marion County, if they can't hear anyone on the other end of the line or they can't reach an adult, they're required to send an officer to make sure it's not a real emergency.

"It's really not a good thing. It takes them away. We answer the calls when we could be answering something else."

“A lot would help with parents being involved and paying attention to where their phones are placed in their home and keeping their children from playing with their phone on a regular basis,” said Walters.