Belleville Police Service is working to try and reduce the number of calls to 911, where the caller simply hangs up on operators before any information is given.
A report to the Belleville Police Services Board during their meeting on Thursday highlighted the number of 911 hang-ups their operators receive, with a total of 288 hang-ups in January 2025 alone.
In 2024, police received 4,165 911 hang-up calls, which averaged 11.4 per day.
The report highlighted that most of these calls are accidental due to misdials, pocket dials, or errors in mobile phone emergency settings. Each one needs to be treated as a potential emergency and first responders are sent out to ensure someone isn’t in trouble, taking resources from other urgent calls.
In order to reduce the number of dropped calls, police are rolling out several communications programs, including social media outreach, and information sessions at Loyalist College for international students who might not know how the 911 system works.
Belleville police are asking residents who discover they’ve made an accidental call to 911 to remain on the line and let the operator know it was a mistake, to prevent tying up responders chasing down false alarms.
While the number of hang-ups has increased in recent years, the report found they actually decreased in 2024 relative to the previous year, with 1766 fewer hang-ups received.
