Technology

Is Your Butt Calling 9-1-1? In Evanston, IL They Are

There are approximately 300 million cell phone users in America, and by some estimates 900 BILLION cell phone calls are made each year.

However, not all of these calls are intentional.

When you accidentally fumble inside your pocket or purse, or sit down and “butt dial” your cell phone, you typically just re-dial the last number. However, many of these calls are going to 9-1-1, and that’s a problem.

Calling 9-1-1 and just hanging up is confusing to the operators. They don’t know if you were in a real emergency and suddenly were forced to hang up or were in danger. Emergency services personnel ask that people who make an accidental call to please stay on the line and let the operator know.

One suburban Chicago town estimates that 20% of the calls made to their 9-1-1  emergency operators is an accident. “Purse dialing” or “butt dialing” is an unintended consequence of the massive growth of the cell phone business.

Evanston, Illinois has a population of 75,000, and CBS 2 reports that each month as many as 500 unintentional calls to 9-1-1 are made:

Considering that the small town of Evanston gets 17 accidental calls per day and that is putting a strain on their emergency services system, the national implications are huge.

Extrapolate Evanston’s experience to a national level. If we are making 900 billion phone calls and 20% of those call could be accidental, that means as many as 180 billion false 9-1-1 calls could be happening every year.

False 9-1-1 calls waste time and could potentially cost many lives as operators are trying to figure out if a butt-dial call is real while people actually needing help are waiting to speak to someone.

The solution is simple. Get a cover

Comments (47)

  • midnightvelvet
    Posted on December 3, 2011 at 4:54pm

    My brother did this once when he dropped the phone and didn’t realize it. The police showed up ten minutes later. The policeman was kinda cranky about it. I found it reassuring that they showed up so quickly. No substitute for a gun in you house however.

    Report Post »  
  • Rowgue
    Posted on December 2, 2011 at 8:34pm

    This happens because a lot of idiotic cell phone manufactureres default 911 to the first speed dial slot, which is what gets accidentally dialed most of the time. You don’t need a speed dial for 911, it’s three numbers and nobody is going to forget it.

    Report Post »  
    • 1389AD
      Posted on December 2, 2011 at 8:45pm

      No kidding! Warn the phone providers that they either fix this IMMEDIATELY via a software rollout, or they get billed for future butt-dialed 911 calls.

      Report Post »  
  • BigSaltyCracker
    Posted on December 2, 2011 at 3:56pm

    Hello this is 911 operator, And then they here the one cheek sneek rip.

    Report Post »  
    • Exiled
      Posted on December 3, 2011 at 5:04pm

      We’ve heard worse than that. Plus, all the calls are recorded, so we can enjoy them for years to come.

      Report Post »  
  • sparking1
    Posted on December 2, 2011 at 3:51pm

    What an odd phenomenon. And I was worried about erectile disfunction
    do to the proximity of my phone to that area. Some larger chested women
    carry thier phones in the brazzier. Will this be known as ‘BOOB DIALING’?

    Report Post »  
  • rich66
    Posted on December 2, 2011 at 3:34pm

    Did you ever notice that if you call the non emergency number to report something so small in the grand scheme of things that they then forward you to the 911 Emergency center?

    The more calls they get in there the more credit they get for answering “emergency calls”.
    That way they brag about how many calls they get every year and how they need to hire more dispatchers and they need to pay more.
    Empire building at it’s best!!

    And yes I was a dispatcher for a few years.

    Report Post »  
    • Exiled
      Posted on December 2, 2011 at 3:53pm

      That’s more thank likely because the 9-1-1 center is also the Dispatch Center. These are two completely different functions, but are often combined in smaller communities. You got some sort of “credit” for each call? Really? What a horrid system. I’m glad my county is nothing like that.

      Report Post »  
    • 4xeverything
      Posted on December 3, 2011 at 6:06am

      In my small village of 3500 we all know the police (consisting of 12 officers) officers by name. In fact, I don‘t know anyone who doesn’t know the police, fire (100% volunteer), and administrators’ phone numbers by heart. I don’t think they could get away with something like that. I was talking to one of our wonderful officers one day, he said he was having a bad day and unfortunately was a little short on the phone with a resident. He said that within 15 min. his mother was calling him at work for being rude on the phone. Hows that for service?

      Report Post » 4xeverything  
    • Wu Ming Ren
      Posted on December 3, 2011 at 12:21pm

      4XEVERYTHING, Thanks for the laugh! His mother scolded him for being rude. It’s good to know there are still such mothers in the world. On the few occasions that I go to my local cop shop to see my sister (who works in admin) I like to begin by saying, “I’d like to report … that nothing bad has happened, and I’m just here to see my sister.” The officers at the front desk get to smile for a change.

      Report Post »  
  • tjb591
    Posted on December 2, 2011 at 2:53pm

    As soon as I got rid of my BlackBerry for a flip-phone, the butt-dialing 911 stopped!!

    Report Post »  
  • gmoneytx
    Posted on December 2, 2011 at 2:45pm

    I’d like to butt dial Obama then FART!

    Report Post » gmoneytx  
  • hoosierdaddyobama
    Posted on December 2, 2011 at 1:22pm

    I butt dialed 911 twice with my old phone. Wondering how this could happen with the screen lock on I did a little investigation. I found that with the screen locked, 911 can still be dialed…makes sense in case of emergency. However, I thought it was a little odd that my extremely intelligent ass could actually select these numbers the correct order. Upon further investigation I noticed that any combination of numbers pressed that contained 9 – 1 – 1 will still place the call. For example pressing 1,3,2,5,9,4,6,1,6,3,7,1 would still dial 911. Just found that a little odd.

    Report Post »  
    • UrbanFool
      Posted on December 2, 2011 at 1:45pm

      This happened to me once and it was pretty freakish. It was about 10 years ago though. I’d no idea it happened until 911 called me back.

      Report Post » UrbanFool  
    • KickinBack
      Posted on December 2, 2011 at 1:54pm

      Same here, about 10-11 years ago my first cell (before flip phones of course) I dialed 911 (on this phone, holding in the 1 key would do it) twice. Once was on new years while I was quite a bit tipsy…That was an interesting conversation with the operator. :P

      Report Post » KickinBack  
    • trolltrainer
      Posted on December 2, 2011 at 2:44pm

      same here. My experience was like yours. Phone locked. Pissed me off, I actually had the sherrif show up at my door. I felt like an idiot.

      Dont do it Beckisnuts! :-P

      Report Post »  
    • 1389AD
      Posted on December 2, 2011 at 8:44pm

      That’s just very poor phone software design. Warn them once, then bill the phone company that designs and distributes the phone handset software for the costs of future “butt dialing.”

      Sitting on a phone should never cause it to dial 911.

      Report Post »  
  • babylonvi
    Posted on December 2, 2011 at 12:51pm

    Just laying the groundwork for new revenue generation, A “New fine for inadvertent 911 calls” can not be far behind.

    Report Post » babylonvi  
    • Exiled
      Posted on December 2, 2011 at 1:07pm

      Not everybody would be getting fines. Just the worst offenders. For example, that lady that lets her kid play with the cellphone that has now dialed 9-1-1 seven to eight times a day for the last two weeks.

      Report Post »  
  • GWBram
    Posted on December 2, 2011 at 12:25pm

    This sounds like more junk science to me. I only just heard of the term “butt call”
    and now its a major problem for 911? I’m guessing most of the hang ups are
    calls to 411 for information or mistakes of area codes suddenly realized.

    Report Post » GWBram  
    • CaptGreg
      Posted on December 2, 2011 at 12:53pm

      I’ve done it myself. I got a new phone, and the carrier had it on pre-programmed on speed dial #1. I put on my seatbelt, and it held the #1 down for a couple of seconds and voila… A few minutes llater 911 operators were calling me back asking what my emergency was.

      I deleted the entry from speed dial, and I haven’t done it since.

      Report Post » CaptGreg  
    • Exiled
      Posted on December 2, 2011 at 1:08pm

      I’ve been a 9-1-1 dispatcher for over a year. This is not a new thing. It happens even more frequently than this article presents. It’s incredibly time-consuming for us.

      Report Post »  
  • texasfireguy
    Posted on December 2, 2011 at 10:47am

    THe cell phone commando, making my life more difficult

    Report Post » texasfireguy  
    • Exiled
      Posted on December 2, 2011 at 1:10pm

      Making your life more difficult? Try spending 20 minutes trying to track down a 9-1-1 hangup, not knowing if the person that hung up on you is in the process of dying, or just didn’t feel like talking to you when they accidentally called. If you don’t answer when we call back, we have to attempt to locate you. Lots of resources.

      Report Post »  
  • Thighmaster
    Posted on December 2, 2011 at 10:44am

    That’s just GREAT! Something else to worry about. I’m sitting here all bloated, scared to death to fart…

    Report Post » Thighmaster  
    • Exiled
      Posted on December 2, 2011 at 1:11pm

      So don’t have 9-1-1 on speed-dial. Problem solved.

      Report Post »  
  • eric6161
    Posted on December 2, 2011 at 9:55am

    Wow, who is writing thees things? It’s assumed each person – man, woman, child, baby, makes 3000 calls per year. If there are 75000 people in Evanston you have 225 million calls so either, at 20%, you have 45 million calls in Evanston or you have 500 a month or 6000 a year and it’s only .00267% and not 20%… and extrapolated it would be 24 million across the country per year and not 180 billion. Sheesh.

    Report Post »  
    • Diomasach
      Posted on December 2, 2011 at 10:54am

      Yes, but not all of those 3,000 calls made per person per year are made to 911… So while 20% of our calls may be accidental, not all of them would go to 911.

      Reading comprehension, try it, you’ll like it…

      Report Post »  
    • mullet
      Posted on December 2, 2011 at 1:31pm

      @ Diomasach. There is a problem with this article. 20% of calls to 9-1-1 are estimated to be done in error. Two statistical errors are made by the author. First, there is no evidence for how many accidental calls are made outside of calling 9-1-1. Second, even if there were 20% of ALL CALLS that were accidental, it would be impossible that EVERY one of those calls go to 9-1-1. This article is poorly written and mathematically completely absurd.

      Report Post » mullet  
    • eric6161
      Posted on December 2, 2011 at 9:51pm

      I was going to suggest that your reading comprehension leaves a bit to be desired but maybe its your 6th grade arithmetic skills that need improving. You may not have noticed that I was using the numbers provided by the articles author when coming up with my numbers. The article said there could be 180 billion calls to 911 out of the 900 billion calls made each year. I was just using simple arithmetic to show how the article is totally wrong.
      I showed that a town of 75000 with 3000 calls per person yields 225 million calls for the town. If as the article says…20% of those 225 million calls are to 911 then 45 million calls are made to 911. I say that is totally wrong. 6000 9-1-1 calls out of the 225 million total calls is .00267% and not 20%.
      However, for those to understand my comments they need to have an understanding of basic arithmetic. Now might be a good time for you to find a tutor.

      Report Post »  
  • thegreatcarnac
    Posted on December 2, 2011 at 9:53am

    It’s alright if your butt accidently calls 911 but if it makes obscene calls…it is time you and your butt have a talk.

    Report Post »  
  • tzion
    Posted on December 2, 2011 at 9:43am

    My phone has a lockable keypad but it was specifically designed so you could call 911 without unlocking the keypad. In fact its the only number that I can dial without unlocking my phone.

    Report Post »  
  • ThomasUSA
    Posted on December 2, 2011 at 9:22am

    I’ve unlocked some speciall features in my Iphone.. not only a “butt dial” mode but also “phart recognition”.. that‘s for when you’re driving and in “butt free” mode..

    Report Post » ThomasUSA  
  • MotoMofo
    Posted on December 2, 2011 at 8:36am

    I can’t wait for the awareness ad – “Butt dialing makes you an ass”

    Report Post » MotoMofo  
  • SpankDaMonkey
    Posted on December 2, 2011 at 8:04am

    .
    A friend of ours butt dialed his wife while he was busy with his girlfriend, not a good thing……

    Report Post » SpankDaMonkey  
    • Snowleopard {gallery of cat folks}
      Posted on December 2, 2011 at 8:20am

      If your friend wound up in divorce court I could imagine one line to the judge went like this:

      “Your honor, the affair of the husband was revealed when his phone was dialed by his…hm, shall we say…tushie…”

      Report Post » Snowleopard {gallery of cat folks}  
    • beesknow
      Posted on December 2, 2011 at 11:14am

      If he was “busy” with his girlfriend, where did he keep the phone to butt dial….lol…just asking

      Report Post »  
    • bobster99
      Posted on December 2, 2011 at 11:16am

      It turns out that my phone is more vindictive than I am… it called my ex wife twice when I was… um… involved with my new girlfriend. It had been a couple of years since we divorced but I am pretty sure she was a little baffled why she got two phone calls late one night with nothing but some… um… rustling noises.

      Report Post »  
  • Winedude
    Posted on December 2, 2011 at 7:59am

    No excuse for “butt dialing.” I haven‘t seen a phone yet where you couldn’t either put it in a “sleep” mode or lock the dial pad.

    Report Post »  
    • TumbleBumble
      Posted on December 2, 2011 at 8:33am

      That’s true; my phone has a small lock button on the side. Yet more than once when running with it either in my pocket or while in my pack, it has become unlocked and dialed someone from my contact list.

      I never go out for a run without it, for safety’s sake. I also have a silicone cover, yet somehow that little button gets pressed and unlocked. I’ve pulled it out afterwards and found it on all sorts of pages. Just thankfully have never dialed 911.

      Report Post » TumbleBumble  
    • loriann12
      Posted on December 2, 2011 at 8:57am

      Agreed. Alot of phones are flip phones, if you don’t have an iPhone. Heck, even the old “candy bar” phones had a locking feature.

      Report Post »  
    • Hankstwocents
      Posted on December 2, 2011 at 9:35am

      Locking the keypad did not work for me, after about ten 911 calls I got a flip phone and the problem was solved.

      Report Post »  
    • Eddie
      Posted on December 2, 2011 at 12:19pm

      True. No excuse. I’m a 911 Dispatcher and just work part time. However, it’s not unusual to get 6 to 8 “butt dials” a weekend on 911. Many at this time of years are hunters. We can hear them swishing their clothing as they walk through brush. When we are finally able to dial them and see if they’re needing help, they almost always say, “My phone didn’t dial you!”. Okay, so how did we know to call you back at your displayed number. That’s when they tell us they had it in their pocket, etc. Another problem we have is people letting kids play with their old phones with the batteries still installed. Even if the contract is expired, federal law say that you must be able to dial 911 from any cell phone. And the kids SURE take advantage of it. Luckily we can plot the location of the phone and send an officer out to request the parent at least remove the battery from the phone. Sure makes our job harder.

      Report Post »  

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