With a “drastic uptick” in hang-up calls to the Lyon County Emergency Communications Center this year, Director Roxanne Van Gundy recently joined KVOE’s Morning show to discuss the do’s and don’ts of 911 hangup-calls.
Van Gundy tells KVOE News that hangups can occur for a number of reasons including misdials. Van Gundy says the vast majority of misdials end with residents hanging up before a dispatcher answers.
Van Gundy says this is not the best course of action, instead residents should stay on the line.
Van Gundy explains that when residents simply hang up dispatchers then have to make contact to ensure there is no actual emergency which can take a significant amount of time away from other responsibilities.
According to a recent news release from LCECC, to date there have been 297 hang-up calls processed within Lyon County this calendar year. That is a 90 percent increase over the entirety of 2022 which saw a total of 155 calls.
Van Gundy says some ways that residents can avoid misdials or unintentional hangups is to ensure their cell phones are always secure, take the battery out of the cell phone when allowing small children to play with it and make sure not to place devices such as smartwatches in cup holders or unsecured places where they may be jostled about.
