"I Hate You, That's My Emergency!" | NBC4 Washington

Non-emergency 911 calls delay real help in Prince George's County

“I hate you, that’s my emergency!”

The woman had called into the Prince Georges County 911 Call Center to rant about nothing in particular. She may have been trying to hurt the operator’s feelings, but she could have been hurting a total stranger in need of real emergency assistance.

“The 9-1-1 number is for emergencies only,” says Charlynn Flaherty, the county’s Assistant Director at the call center. “It’s life and death, you’re having a heart attack, your house is on fire, you’re under immediate threat, there’s a crime in progress.”

Flaherty says that of the 1.2 million calls they receive every year, about 20 percent are either pranks or non-emergencies.