Nova Scotia EMO reminding people what 911 is for

Chances are most people know when to call 911, but the Nova Scotia governmentis urging people to consider when not to call the emergency response line.

The EMO office in Nova Scotia launched an awareness campaign to caution people against calling 911 unless it's a true emergency.

Paul Mason, the director of 911 for Nova Scotia, said about 20 per cent of the roughly 650 calls a day to 911 are considered inappropriate.

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"It could be things like a noise complaint, someone checking on the state of an ongoing investigation," said Mason.

Hesaid about half the accidental calls to 911 are from cell phones.

"So cases where people have a phone in their purse or maybe in their back pocket, those do represent a significant number of calls to 911 that are obviously unintentional."

Time waster

Non-emergency calls tie up resources, says Mason.

"If it's a non-emergency, basically that call has to be processed as if it was an emergency of course until it's determined that it's not. It does commit resources that could be used to deal with an actual emergency during the time frame it takes to make that determination," he said.

He also cautioned against hanging up if you make an accidental or non-emergency call.

"If you just hang up, then they don't know why you hung up, it could be a number of scenarios and they'll have to pursue that, you could have a situation where youhang up under duress or against your will and in those cases we have procedures in place to ensure that the person who hung up meant to hang up and doesn't need assistance," he said.

EMOis urging people to think hard before they dial 911.

"Take a moment and utilize thewebsiteor another means to identify one of the non-emergency phone numbers you can use to contact one of our first responder partnersand that way it keeps those 911 lines open for emergencies where people's life or property are in immediate danger or threat," he said.

Mason also said, although it's done sparingly, people can be charged if non-emergency calls are made on purpose.