The Emergency 911 Act, which passed third reading in the Alberta legislature on May 6, includes stiff fines for individuals who deliberately abuse 911 service.
A frivolous 911 call is defined as any 911 call deliberately made to waste time or abuse the service. The act proposes fines of $5,000 for the first offence and $10,000 for repeat offences.
It's a step in the right direction, said Const. Chris Lavery of the Innisfail RCMP. Lavery said he remembers one individual who called 911 several times in one night to get a hold of police in a non-emergency situation.
“I have in my career experienced one night when a person phoned 911 20 times because they were upset about their situation. They continued to phone 911, 911 for non-emergency situations.”
He said it would help to have some sort of power to stop such a person from abusing that service.
“At a certain point there are a lot of resources going toward that person and that's a lot of taxpayer money and that's a lot of resources and a lot of police time responding to this person.”
The 911 line is meant for active emergency situations only, Avery stressed. Also, each 911 call must be taken seriously until it is determined to be not.
“I never want to discourage anyone from calling 911, but 911 calls are for active emergency situations. For a situation that is no longer dangerous and has already passed, you have a complaint line that you can call that can be dispatched.”
While the local RCMP officer is in support of the legislation, he believes discretion will be used when issuing fines.
“In certain circumstances in my career it absolutely would have been appropriate to do that, but is this going to happen every day in Alberta? No, it's not…. It gives us the power to stop people who are abusing the system, not people who are generally making a mistake, but people who are abusing the system,” Lavery said.
The Emergency 911 Act will come into effect later this year. The act also includes a source of funding for 911 calls through a levy on cellphones and a way to create new standards and procedures for 911 call centres.
“This legislation will go a long way to ensuring Alberta's 911 call centres and communities have a strong foundation for the future,” Greg Weadick, Associate Minister of Municipal Affairs, said in a news release. “Our government is proud to have put in place these supports for 911 call centres, and will be working hard in the coming months on finalizing all the details before implementing legislation.”
