According to the "National Emergency Number Association (NENA)", calling to 911 by mistake is not a crime, but if you do call by mistake you shouldn't hang up but let the operator know about the mistake, in order to prevent them to believe is actually someone on a emergency and waste precious resources that could be helping others in real need. What it is against the law is to make prank calls to 911. The "NENA" website doesn't mention the penalties, though. For more information visit the "NENA" website FAQ at: http://www.nena9-1-1.org/911_facts/9-1-1QandA.htm Hope this information is helpful.

It’s not a crime in Canada if the call is made in error. If you call with the intent of reporting an emergency I agree with previous response to at least let them know their services are not required. 911 is North American for emergency and in the UK it’s 999 and I believe other parts of Europe are 113 and so on. If travelling make sure to know what the emergency number is for the country you are in.

If you dial 911 from a landline, dispatchers automatically know where the phone call came from. I heard a story where a bunch of kids where dialing 911 then hanging up, just for the fun of it. I think they ended up having to do some community work and the parents had to pay a fine. Here in Australia, you dial 000 for emergencies. I think, because kids watch so much television from the states, that you can dial 911 and it transfers to 000. There was a story in the news just last month, where a well known sportsman had a heart attack or something and tried to dial 000, but hit 888 instead. Sadly he would have got a "please check the number and dial again" message. Friends found him that night on the floor with the phone by his side.

Although it may not be a crime, constant 911 calls, take investigation and valuable time away from the police. each 911 call has to be investigated. just like domestic violence calls to the police, 911 calls also cannot be called back to verify an emergency. common sense tells you why. 911 calls from a cellphone present an extremely difficult situation for police. a 911 cellphone call cannot be traced to an exact location like your home phone. simple because cellphones are mobile. a 911 cellphone call can only be traced to the last tower transmission. if a 911 call is accidentally made, call the police and inform them. it saves time and fuel and leaves the police available for real emergencies. teach your children phone etiquette and the seriousness of false 911 phone calls.

Seeing as I'm British, and our emergency number is 999 I'm not sure I'm answering the question but it seems relevant. In cases of a genuine accident then you will not normally be prosecuted. I have witnessed two examples of this. The first was my mother forgetting to lock her mobile (sorry; cellphone!!) keypad, which then pressed against something in her handbag (purse!!) dialling 999 by accident without her knowledge. The switchboard proceeded to call her back, gave her a small lecture about being more careful in future, but took it no further. Contrary to popular belief there is no requirement to actually send the services out just because a call has been made, unless they consider the circumstances suspicious, or you don't answer when they call back, no police/ambulance/fire service will be despatched. The second incidence was whilst I was working in a hotel where it was necessary to dial the number "9" to get an external connection. Several guests were known to get impatient and press the 9 button more than once when not hearing the dial tone immediately- and would sometimes call the emergency services by mistake. Again, the switchboard would call back, check that the guest was ok, when they explained the situation would advise they be more careful. So if the call is not malicious, although technically you could be prosecuted for wasting police time, its unlikely to happen in practice.

The police do not and should not call back 911 and domestic calls, for this reason. the police do not know the situation, which originated the original 911 or domestic call. meaning this: if your family was being held hostage by terroists and you could only make one 911 call, would you want to "tip" the terroists by a callback from the police? the psychological stability of some criminals can be devastating. the callback ring of a phone, may be all thats necessary to ignite his brain. the same applies in domestic situations. two argumentive people can be escalated to an assault, simply because the police made a callback to verify the call. meaning, one person made the 911 call to police and the other party had no knowledge of the call, thus escalating the domestic situation. there are many other situations, too numerous to mention, where the police should never make a callback. like in my previous answer, common sense should prevail on callbacks concerning 911 calls.

No, not unless its continuance and with intent. if all the people, who accidentally dialed 911 were arrested, each state would have to build more jails and prisons. false 911 calls account for 15% of all police calls. for the police, it may be a wasted call to answer, then that one time, it may be real. can the police take that chance? no.

Calling back a 911 number can be dangerous. suppose you are the victim of a kidnapping and managed to free yourself to make a 911 call. a 911 callback, by the police, could alert the kidnapper and place the victim in serious jeopardy.

As a 911 dispatcher, I do call back 911 disconnects, as it's our policy. Nine times out of ten it's an angry senior citizen who's accidentally pressed the hot key on their handset, who ends up accusing you of pranking them (lol), however we still send out a unit. Other times, the party answered and laid the receiver down keeping the line open, helping me alert my units en route to a highly volatile situation, such as the sound of victims being struck with a fist in a domestic battery. Later that tape can and often is used in court to help the victim. It's really up to each agency how to handle 911 disconnects. As far as accidentally dialing, it is true, if there is a pattern of abuse, charges can be filed (and should!). However, if you accidentally dial 911 (or 112, 999, etc) stay on the line! Nothing will get the police en route to your home quicker than you hanging up.

Definately not a crime. Kids do it all the time.

No, not by mistake. My child dialed 911 for "fun" when he was three and they called back, if I hadn't answered they would have traced the address and shown up. The news reported an escaped prisoner being picked up by police because he used a payphone to dial 411 for information but dialed 911 by mistake, lol.

I remember this story of a woman who called 911 because McDonalds had her order wrong. She got a felony. When I was young, I called 911. They called back and found out it was a child.

No, If you call 911 by mistake, then the Importance Is that you can call them back and tell them that It was a mistake.

No but they make a big enough deal out of it yo...

no. i was teaching my youngest son about 911 and he called them for reall while practicing. they were very nice about it.

I don't think is a crime. I did it when I was a little kid at a birthday party in the park. The cops came and investigated the area (it was a public phone). They ruined the party and I felt soooo bad, so I blamed it on my cousin and everyone believed me! My cousin got grounded by her parents that night. (we were around 10 yrs old) I still feel like an a$$hole everytime I think about it, which is almost everytime I see my cousin today! LOL

No, but if it happens often there will be fines. Where I used to work, apparently some people had a bad habit of fat-fingering when dialing a phone number. They'd press 9 for an outside line, then start dialing 1 + area code, but they'd hit the 1 twice. Then they'd panic and hang up. After this happened several times (without my knowledge), the company was told to do something about it or face fines. Then they came to me and, of course, I couldn't block 911 calls but I could change our 'outside line' digit from 9 to 8. Only company I ever heard of where you dial 8 to get out.

Calling 911 by mistake is not in itself a crime. However, if you place multiple calls or give any indication that it is an intentional prank you can face charges. A neighbor who is a school principal once dialed 911 and reported a 10-1 (in Chicago that's 'officer down') in order to get a fast response to break up a gang fight that was out of control. If you are calling 911 make sure you have a reason for doing so, and when officers arrive on scene stick to the facts and don't contrive a story, or you may be charged with filing a false police report.

I've done it when I was calling 411, operator "information" in Ohio. They always call back to check then give some bullshit lecture.