Dozens of fake 911 calls are ringing into Chickasaw County

CHICKASAW COUNTY, Miss. (WCBI) – Dozens of fake 911 calls continue to ring into the Chickasaw County E-911 Center.

It started about two weeks ago and hasn’t stopped.

Dispatchers believed the issue stemmed from old phones that still work, but aren’t in service.

They also said these types of calls aren’t something that just started happening.

The phone never stops ringing at 911 centers because dispatchers are always answering emergencies.

Here recently in Chickasaw County, the phones have been ringing even more than usual, but with non-emergencies.

Dispatcher Rena Gann said these types of calls come in a pattern.

“The first couple of days of spring break. The first week or so when school lets out for the summer is when you can definitely tell and then it will taper off, but yeah, you’re talking about 30 phone calls an hour constantly, yeah, back to back.”

The issue is that it holds up other lines with real emergencies.

“You never know with what’s going to be on the next phone ring. What’s going to be going down, you know, that you’ve really got to be paying attention to and deal with and then, here’s this other phone ringing in the background and you’re like well, is that real? What is this?”

Gann said it sounds like a child on the other end of these fake 911 calls and some sound accidental, while others seem intentional.

Dispatchers believed the issue stems from parents giving their children old phones that still work, but aren’t in service.

“The parents are letting them play with them and they are not taking the batteries out, so they are still active and those that are not under a service contract or anything like that, they still can call 911 no matter what button you push,” says Chickasaw County E-911 Coordinator Barry Martin.

When these calls come in, the true number won’t show up, instead, it pops up as if it were a burner phone and it pings off of the same 911 towers.

“We’ve got to answer regardless. Just because we can look at that phone and look up here and see the number that’s coming in and it’s that same number, we still have to answer it because people depend on us for their life.”

Gann said she believes these fake calls ring into other emergency centers, but their 911 systems are more equipped to help cure the issue.

“They have the capabilities to ping the location and come up with a generalized location and you may know somebody in that area and an officer could may go and talk to somebody, ‘Hey, this is going on.’ Where we do not have that capability. We are hoping to upgrade because our county really needs it.”

Gann said she can easily receive about 100 fake 911 calls each shift.