Southeastern Idaho police having trouble with fake 911 calls from deactivated cell phones

POCATELLO, ID — Children using their parents’ old cellphones are causing problems for emergency responders, authorities in southeastern Idaho say.

“People don’t realize that a deactivated cellphone can still call 911,” Pocatello Police Information Officer Lt. Paul Manning told the Idaho State Journal (http://bit.ly/njfaln). “It doesn’t matter if your service is shut off or not. As long as the cellphone has a battery or power source, all it takes is someone pressing the number nine and it will dial to 911.”

Other agencies who said they have similar problems include the Bannock County Sheriff’s office, the Chubbuck City Police Department, and the Franklin County Sheriff’s office.

Officials say tracking down the calls wastes manpower and causes agencies to be short-handed for real emergencies.

Franklin County Sheriff Don Beckstead said there has been a rise in such calls and that his agency is required to check each call to make sure there isn’t a real crisis.

“A child calls 911 from a deactivated cellphone, that call hits the cell tower and stops, making it virtually impossible to track,” Beckstead said. “We ask that people not give their antiquated cellphones to children to play with.”

The Chubbuck Police Department uses its public tours to try to take care of the problem.

“We utilize public tours of the department to bring the issue to everyone’s attention,” Chubbuck Police Dispatcher Amy Loya said. “Whenever we have a Boy Scout troop come through, we try to stress the importance of not playing with deactivated cellphones.”

Read the story here.

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