Old cell phones give dispatchers headache

PROVO — "Provo 911, what's the address of your emergency?"

Dispatcher Julie Bell waits for an answer, then repeats the question.

"Hello? This is 911. If you need help, press a button."

Click.

It's not the first 911 hang-up Bell's taken today. It's more like the third or fourth.

Since January, Provo dispatchers have received 1,053 abandoned 911 calls from deactivated cell phones — an average of 351 a month, said Provo Police Lt. J.D. Lougee.

"We know our resources are being tied up on those (calls), starting with dispatchers, then tying up an officer out on a location," Lougee said. "If someone's playing on the phone, that officer should be involved in something else."

Since January, the center received 10,307 non-abandoned 911 calls.

Up north during the same three months, Salt Lake City dispatchers fielded nearly 23,000 calls. An average of 15 percent of those calls were 911 hang-ups from deactivated cell phones — about 3,500 calls, said Roxann Cheever, director of the communications division for Salt Lake City police.

The majority of "bad" calls come from young children playing with old cell phones or phones no longer attached to a service plan, Lougee said.

What many parents don't realize is that those old or deactivated phones — if they still have battery power — are capable of calling 911.

However, unlike an active phone, the old phone doesn't provide emergency dispatchers with a call-back number. When such a call comes in, it shows up with a 911 prefix and seven digits of an "Electronic Serial Number."

An ESN is assigned to a particular phone through the cell-phone company. When dispatchers see those seven digits, they'll start calling cell-phone companies, hoping to glean information about the phone's most recent owner and get a possible address.

However, if they're unable to call back and confirm a mistaken 911 call, officers respond to the location — as they do on every 911 call — hoping they've been given the most recent address.

The ability for any phone to dial 911 regardless of service status is a Federal Communications Commission rule intended as a safety feature.