Nye sheriff expresses frustration with non-emergency 911 calls
In what appears to be a trend as of late, Nye County Sheriff’s Office dispatchers have been receiving an inordinate amount of non-emergency calls on their emergency dispatch phone lines.
This month alone, deputies have responded to at least a half-dozen 911 service calls where upon arrival, deputies learned that no actual emergency situation existed.
Following a recent inquiry into the matter, Nye County Sheriff Joe McGill told the Pahrump Valley Times that those calls continually waste valuable time and resources within the agency.
“We only have so many people to answer the phone into dispatch at any given time,” McGill said. “Thus, the unnecessary use of 911 or illegal use of 911 takes up the dispatcher’s time and the phone line, where it prevents someone with a legitimate emergency from being able to call in, so they get put on hold, and obviously that’s the reason why it’s a problem.”
Per department policy, McGill said deputies are required to respond all 911 emergency service calls.
He also noted that those who appear to be abusing the system are not necessarily arrested after the first, second or even third alleged instance.
“In most cases, they get a fifth warning before we finally wind up taking somebody to jail,” he said. “We don’t want to discourage people from calling 911, when they need help. In some cases, people who abuse the 911 system appear to have mental health issues, so they are not necessarily the people that we want to take to jail, but at some point, we have to draw the line. We may get four or five or six 911 non-emergency calls from the same house before we actually take action.”
Further, McGill said dispatchers and deputies are obligated to respond to all 911 emergency calls for service.
“Sometimes it’s a person calling 911, saying they have people breaking into their house and they have a gun, and they are hiding in the bathroom, and when deputies arrive, there’s nobody there,” he said. “We then get another call the next day from the same person, saying they’ve got people breaking into their house. Like I said, it’s not necessarily the kind of people that we want to take to jail, but sometimes there is no other solution. At other times they’re under the influence, and they’re suffering from mental issues.”
In past instances, the Pahrump Valley Times has reported individuals who have been taken into custody for alleged “prank” 911 calls, including a man who called into dispatch several times on the same evening just to say “hello” to dispatchers.
He was subsequently arrested.
In another instance, a person called 911 while two uniformed deputies were actually on his property investigating a report of loud music.
“We get these types of non-emergency 911 calls on a regular basis,” McGill noted.
To report non-emergency situations, residents are urged to call the sheriff’s non-emergency line at 775 751-7000.
In Pahrump, making a non-emergency call to 911 can lead to a gross misdemeanor charge, potentially resulting in up to a year in jail and a $2,000 fine.
Contact reporter Selwyn Harris at sharris@pvtimes.com.
