Don't give children disabled cell phones, dispatchers plead


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WEST VALLEY CITY — Dispatchers are pleading with parents not to give their children disabled cell phones to play with, saying they field dozens of hang-up 911 calls every day.

Many people don't realize a disabled cell phone can still call 911.

"The 911 function still works, even if there's no cell phone coverage," says Lt. Julie Jorgenson with the West Valley City police department. "If the kid calls 911, it will connect with whatever 911 service is closest to that phone."

Jorgenson says the calls waste time and distract from real emergencies.

"We get probably between 50 and 100 calls from disconnected cell phones every day," Jorgenson says.

The trouble is that dispatchers can't afford to treat a hang-up call as anything other than an emergency, in case it really is one.

"They're treating those as an emergency every single time that call comes in. And it's a large burden on their time to take all of these calls and there's no one there to talk with and get more information from," Jorgenson says.

If you give your child an old phone to play with the apps, Jorgenson asks that you keep a close eye to make sure they're not dialing 911.

Contributing: Becky Bruce

[listen to ‘WVC Police urge you not to give children a disabled cell phone’ on audioBoom](https://audioboom.com/boos/2922262-wvc-police-urge-you-not-to-give-children-a-disabled-cell-phone)
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Brianna Bodily is a reporter and anchor for KSL Newsradio.

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