Police in the western city of Edmonton are renewing a campaign to get people to stop calling its emergency 911 telephone line for situations that are not emergencies. In 2015, almost 40 per cent of calls were non-emergencies. So far this year, over 40 per cent have been.
A call for help moving
A woman called police because her fireplace was making noise and she wanted police to check it out, reports local radio station CHED. It also noted that someone else called to ask police to help her move because she didn’t have a car. And yes, people have called because their pizza was not delivered.
Social media will be used
Edmonton police launched a campaign in 2012 sending brochures to each home explaining what is and what is not considered to be an emergency worthy of calling 911. It succeeded in decreasing the number of nuisance calls, but it later started creeping up again.
This campaign will use social media to spread the message.
Other Canadian cities, like Vancouver, report similar problems with nuisance calls to emergency lines.
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