Courtesy: PR RCMP
Peace Regional RCMP ask parents to monitor children using old phones and stay on the line
Peace River, Alta. – On April. 20, 2025, Peace Regional RCMP responded to 20+ 911 calls from 911 prefix’s over the course of one hour where dispatchers reported the sounds of very young children playing in the background and a child saying they wanted their mother and were bored.
While it is not uncommon for parents to give their children old phones to play with, some may not realize that the emergency 911 function still works. When the emergency 911 function is activated it connects the phone to dispatchers. This takes up valuable 911 dispatcher time while they attempt to respond to the 911 prefix hangup, possibly causing a delay in response to other legitimate emergencies as dispatchers answer their calls and send files to RCMP around Alberta quickly.
Unlike physically dialing 911, when the emergency 911 option is activated, it relays the prefix numbers 911, and then a jumble of numbers that are not associated to any phone number or can be tracked back to any subscriber to help police identify the caller.
Dispatchers cannot phone the 911 prefix phone number back and rely on GPS coordinates or listening to what is being said by whomever is phoning. GPS coordinates, can bounce off of several cell towers, or simply could tell dispatchers that the phone number is bouncing off of a single cell phone tower with a radius ranging from a few meters to thousands of kilometers around the tower, making it difficult and sometimes near impossible, to locate the phone making the call.
If you accidentally call 911 with the emergency function, don’t hang up, please stay on the line with dispatchers and simply inform them it was a mistake to prevent significant use of resources by our dispatchers, analysts and RCMP members to try to locate you. RCMP still must follow up to ensure you are safe, in case your 911 call was done while you were in an unsafe situation and could not speak freely.
Additional, monitor your children while playing with old phones in case they accidentally call 911, and have a conversation with them that if they have dispatchers asking questions, they need to bring the phone to an adult or at least answer questions from our dispatchers.
The Peace Regional RCMP is seeking the public’s assistance in identifying the location of, or sightings of any crimes in the area and anyone with information is asked to please contact the Peace Regional RCMP at 780-624-6611 or your local police. If you wish to remain anonymous, you can contact Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8377 (TIPS), online at www.P3Tips.com or by using the “P3 Tips” app available through the Apple App or Google Play Store.
