Since the beginning of 2015, hang up calls to the 911 Center have increased from nearly 15 percent of all calls in January to almost 27 percent in June. It is important to remain on the line with a 911 Communications Officer even if the call was an accident. When a person hangs up on a 911 call, the Communications Officer calls the person back to insure that police or fire response is not needed, taking valuable time that could be spent addressing a true emergency call.

If you no longer need public safety response, tell the 911 Communications Officer. It takes less time to cancel your call than to hang-up and force the Communications Officer to call you back to determine the nature of your call.

Hang-ups happen for many reasons:

• Someone accidentally calls 911
• A child calls 911
• Multiple people call 911 for the same emergency
• Someone calls 911 and then changes their mind
• A child is playing with a disconnected phone, which will still call 911

Remember, it is important to stay on the line with 911 for emergencies, non-emergencies, or even if you accidently call. If you are a witness to a crime or traffic accident, please call 911. Your statement could be valuable to the investigation. Never assume that someone else is calling 911 in an emergency.