Police Tired Of False 911 Calls Prosecutor Asked To Charge Girl For Crying Wolf

It almost sounds like a fable - the one where the young boy, tired of guarding the village sheep, keeps calling out the townsfolk with his cries of “Wolf.”

Then when the wolf actually moves in for the kill, the villagers ignore him.

Post Falls police say the following is no fable: A 15-year-old girl has called the city’s 911 emergency center more than 100 times recently.

Police officers have rushed to almost every one of those calls, each time finding no emergency, said Detective Steve Kiehn.

Unlike the townspeople of the fable, the police department doesn’t have the luxury of ignoring calls for help.

Instead, it has the court system.

On Friday, the case was submitted to the Kootenai County prosecutor for possible criminal charges against the girl.

“Every time a 911 call comes in and the party hangs up and the trace is made - we respond,” Kiehn said.

The girl has denied making all except one of the false calls, Kiehn said.

Kent Hall, director of the Kootenai County dispatch center, said false calls are fairly rare.

But dispatch and police officials say false calls to the emergency centers tie up officers and telephone lines that could be used for a real emergency. They also waste taxpayer money.

Hall said medical and police officers nationwide have been injured and killed while responding to calls that turned out to be fake.

The Post Falls girl made more than 100 calls to the 911 center in the span of a week and a half at the end of June and early July, Kiehn said.

At least one officer and sometimes two made trips to the house numerous times each day.

The girl usually let the phone ring just long enough for a dispatcher to pick it up before she hung up. Dispatchers were able trace the call to a Post Falls residence where the girl was staying with her grandfather.

“He denied that the calls were coming from that house,” Kiehn said, explaining that the man had GTE check the phone lines.

GTE confirmed the calls were coming from the house, the detective said.

“Basically he’s just sticking up for his granddaughter,” Kiehn said.

Kiehn said he does not know why the girl is making the phone calls.

His department has asked the county prosecutor to charge the girl with making a false emergency call for the one incident she admitted.

They are still investigating the other incidents.

Earlier this spring, the Kootenai County Dispatch Center received a rash of false calls from the pay phones at area schools, Hall said. School officials and parents were able to stop the problem without charges being filed.

Hall said children may make false calls just to see the emergency vehicles respond. Or adults may make false calls and send the police to the address of a person they want to harass.

Kiehn said sometimes small children will play with telephone buttons and accidentally dial 911.

Wolf or no wolf, officers still have to respond. As Post Falls Detective Dick Halligan pointed out, there have been times when the dispatch center has received 911 hang-up calls that turned out to be true emergencies.

“We are busy enough without false calls,” Hall said.

, DataTimes