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Man arrested after calling 911 16 times in matter of hours
9-1-1 in the News, Calls | April | November 22, 2011 at 9:32 am
JACKSONVILLE, FL – 911 emergency? Or just a waste of police time?
At the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office, 911 dispatchers take thousands of calls a day.
Most of them are real emergencies but there are some that leave dispatchers scratching their heads.
“We do get calls of people calling for anything from needing a ride to get their hair done to wanting to go to the doctor, they don’t have a ride or various other things,” said Melissa Bujeda, JSO.
Ronald Clark was arrested Saturday on a misuse of 911 charge. Police say he called 911 16 times within 24 hours from his cell phone.
He told dispatchers, “My life is in danger”. Police finally tracked him down and quickly realized there was no danger.
“It’s those resources that 16 times in a 24 hour period, those officers are responding to his house for nothing,” said Bujeda.
Bujeda said calls like that can cause problems for people calling with real emergencies.
“It’s a nuisance and a hazard because people calling 911 need that immediate response and when someone is tying up those phone lines, it’s hard for people to get that immediate response because everytime he calls, an officer has to respond,” said Bujeda.
According to police reports, Clark initially denied calling 911 but an officer had a dispatcher call the cell phone number. The cell phone rang while officers were there.
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