‘Butt Dialing’ To Blame For 911 Call Congestion

Your phone may be tying up emergency call lines. (Photo: Getty Images)

Think butt dials from your parents are annoying? Try fielding emergency calls as a 911 dispatcher. New research from Google found that roughly 30 percent of all 911 calls in San Francisco are “butt dials,” or calls placed accidentally.

The report calls accidental dials a unique challenge for dispatchers, who must determine whether a call is a dangerous situation or accidental, and are required to call all incomprehensible callers back.

911 calls have been steadily rising for the past few years (the report looked at data from 2012 to 2014), which researchers credit to more cell phone owners. As more people begin to use cell phones, the number of accidental calls from those phones rises.

Researchers found that 30 percent of calls from wireless phones were accidental in 2014, 88 percent of those accidental dials were called back by the dispatcher, and the average length of the callback process was 1 minute 14 seconds. Most call centers are understaffed as is, so the increase in accidental calls eats up time that could be spent addressing legitimate emergencies. Dispatchers are fed up as well: The report found that 80 percent of respondents agreed that the wireless callback was a time-consuming aspect of their workflow, and 39 percent listed wireless callbacks as their largest pain point in the open text field of the survey.

Accidental 911 calls are hard to prevent, in part because all cell phones must be able to make emergency calls with a locked screen. Officials are looking at options to cut back on time spent devoted to accidental calls: The report suggests automating the call back, cutting out the time dispatchers currently spend trying to reach accidental dialers.

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