Police in Surrey are reminding the public to only dial 911 in the event of an emergency after tens of thousands of calls were reportedly misplaced last year.
In 2023, the Surrey RCMP says it received 103,627 calls to 911 dispatchers. Of those, mounties say 72,343 were abandoned by the caller.
Corp. Sarbjit K. Sangha says that’s 70 per cent of all 911 calls in Surrey. She tells CityNews that number went up by 26 per cent in 2023.
Police say the 25 to 35 per cent of calls that are “false” are considered misuse of the emergency lines.
Abandoned and false calls, Sangha says, result in officers diverting their attention from potential emergencies.
“It definitely adds to the frustration when you actually have the real emergencies that are now waiting when you’re dealing with [false or abandoned] calls,” she said.
The Surrey RCMP offered a list of tips to avoid false 911 calls, including:
- Lock and store your phone properly
- Don’t let children play with phones – even without a SIM card they can call 911 by accident
- Dial slowly and carefully when making international calls
- If you do call 911 accidentally, stay on the line and answer questions from the call taker, otherwise, we will need to call you back or attend in person
Mounties also offered a list of reasons not to call 911, which suggests people have phoned in seeking help moving, to report that their roommate had burned dinner, to report that a loud truck drove by their house and woke them up, and to report a fast food order that wasn’t what they wanted — among other reasons.
The Surrey RCMP says it has an online crime reporting service that the public should use if not reporting a recently-active crime or emergency.
Coquitlam RCMP issue reminder to public: no call too small
Meanwhile, the Coquitlam RCMP issued a release shortly after its neighbour, saying nothing is too small to report.
Coquitlam mounties say the public should know “they can report any suspicious activity, person, or structure, no matter how small or remote the location may be.”
They said Coquitlam officers in the Rural Unit responded to a Tuesday report of suspicious activity along the Pitt River shoreline. The activity reportedly turned out to be two scientists installing a solar panel to power a project aimed at tagging, monitoring, free-living sturgeon to understand their migration behaviour and habitat use.
Coquitlam RCMP Media Relations Officer, Alexa Hodgins, says the solar panel tip was worth reporting.
“No call is too small or too remote for our officers to investigate,” said Hodgins. “From across the river or even by boat, this structure looked like it may have been the beginning of someone building where they shouldn’t have been. By having our officers attend by boat, we were able to determine that it was a lawful project and can provide that update to the complainant and the community.”