Anyone who calls 911 had better be reporting an emergency or a perceived emergency, or else they should be prepared to pay.
The Shawano Common Council on Wednesday adopted an ordinance providing stiff fines for misuse of 911, and the Shawano County Public Safety Committee unanimously approved a recommendation on Wednesday for a similar ordinance.
Both are expected to thwart repeat abusers who pocket-dial emergency lines or call them for nonemergencies.
The city’s ordinance provides for warnings for the first two abuses of 911, and fines after that starting at $100 and getting as high as $1,000 for numerous repeat offenses in a year.
Police Chief Ed Whealon said police had 488 911 calls so far this year, out of which 459 were not emergencies.
Chief Deputy John Gutho of the Shawano County Sheriff’s Department did not have exact numbers available Wednesday, but he told the committee that the number of inappropriate 911 calls in 2012 numbered in the thousands.
Supervisor Bert Huntington was concerned at first that the ordinance might discourage people who have genuine emergencies from making the call.
“I was at a tavern last week, and we had to call 911 because we thought a guy was having a heart attack,” Huntington said.
Huntington quickly switched his stance when he learned that citations will not go out unless a person makes three inappropriate calls within a six-month period.
When it reaches that point, the person will be fined $200.
The next offense is a $350 fine, with the fee jumping up to $500 for every infraction thereafter.
Gutho said the ordinance is necessary because each 911 call requires a deputy to go to the scene. There are some cases where people give their cellphones to young children to keep them entertained, and the children dial 911.
“If you dial 911 and you speak to a dispatcher (about an emergency), that’s cool,” Gutho said. “I don’t anticipate, once this goes public, a lot of citations.”
Even phones that are deactivated can still dial 911, Gutho said, and some of the cases are from people who thought the phone was nonfunctional.
There are cases where repeat offenders speak to dispatchers but do not have emergencies to report. Gutho said there is one repeat offender who calls several times a week.
Supervisor Mike McClelland predicted most repeat offenders might think twice about dialing 911 once it hits them in the wallet.
“They’ll probably get responsible once they get a $200 fine,” McClelland said.
The ordinance will go to the County Board on Oct. 23.
Leader reporter Tim Ryan contributed to this story.
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