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Police Chief frustrated by heavy volume of non emergency 9-1-1 calls

'It is very expensive to manage all these 9-1-1 calls that do not require an emergency service to attend'
20211020 Scott Tod
North Bay Police Chief Scott Tod speaks to the media Tuesday. Photo by Chris Dawson/BayToday.

With the calls for service increasing the North Bay Police Chief knows that finding operation efficiencies is vital. 

However, Scott Tod says they are spending way too much time on 9-1-1 calls. 

He says that close to 80 per cent of 9-1-1 calls do not require any response. 

"Not just the police but Fire, EMS, no one at all," explained Tod after Tuesday's Police Board Meeting outside Police Headquarters.  

"It is a 9-1-1 hang-up, it's an inadvertent pocket dial, it is calling for information on road or weather conditions, or asking if a road is open in our city that is under construction and they will call 9-1-1 for that information.  

"I believe the number was around 450 calls for service; out of the 530 of them were calls that did not require any type of emergency response at all and were largely a waste of time for our resources to be able to apply to answer to that call. It is very expensive to manage all these 9-1-1 calls that do not require an emergency service to attend." 

Tod says this is not a problem unique to the North Bay area. 

"I think every single police service or 9-1-1 provider in the province would tell you the exact same story continuously that it is a problem that we have."

He believes one way to perhaps curb the wasted calls is by fining people through their phone bill. 

"There have been a number of proposals put forward to have people actually charged on their phone bills for 9-1-1 calls that do not require an emergency service but it has only been a proposal that has been discussed," he said.   


Chris Dawson

About the Author: Chris Dawson

Chris Dawson has been with BayToday.ca since 2004. He has provided up-to-the-minute sports coverage and has become a key member of the BayToday news team.
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