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YORKTOWN, N.Y. Yorktown police Lt. Kevin Soravilla said his department receives its share of daily 911 calls, and very few are hang-ups.
"It's not a real problem for us," Soravilla said.
Yorktown receives 20 to 25 calls on the 911 line daily, and an officer is usually sent out to where the call is made to ensure everything is OK, even if the call was made by mistake.
"A lot of it is police instinct," Soravilla said. "You can usually tell by the person's demeanor."
Soravilla chalked up most of the misdialed 911 calls to "ignorance." He said 911 should be used only for actual emergencies, such as a health situation or a crime in progress.
"You don't use 911 for routine police calls," he said.
The Police Department's phone number for nonemergency calls is 914-962-4141.
Other police agencies have experienced a problem with hang-up and misdialed 911 calls. The New York State Police in Hawthorne reported receiving about 1,200 abandoned calls a month. The Westchester County Department of Public Safety has seen a steady increase in erroneous 911 calls, from 92 in 2009 to 317 last year.
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